%W!|  illllljIIJllliy 


iiTiirililViiilW^^^^ 


1     lli| 


llliil!ll!h!!||iij|i!ijl!l!!lj;j! 
>lSli!ii!!|!li    ' 


ill  L!i.:'!'ii!,; 


i'  '1,' 

Ml 


'iiiiii till  ii'" 


I 


! 


j?!':ii;;i'lii!i!;' 


lllf''^'^^-^^^^^ 


iill 


lllilii! 


in.iiiiHHliii;' 


M€m  WOK^MGEM  MEMOEUM, 


i^"^ 


Sermons 

by 

^   American  Rabbis 


Edited  and  Published  under  the  Auspices  of  the 
Central  Conference  of  American  Rabbis, 


BY  .'    1  i '/.  '   \  > 


The  Central  Conference  Publication  Committee* 


CHICAGO,  J896. 


t5 


COPYBIGHT  BY 

THE  CENTRAL  CONFERENCE  PUBLICATION  COMMITTEE. 
1896. 


PREFACE. 


In  accordance  with  a  resolution  adopted  by  the  Cen- 
tral Conference  of  American  Rabbis,  at  Rochester,  N.  Y., 
in  July  1895,  the  Publication  Committee  presents  here- 
with this  collection  of  thirty-seven  sermons  preached  in 
the  American  Jewish  pulpit  by  twenty-seven  different  rab- 
bis. The  intention  is  to  publish  a  similar  volume  from 
time  to  time  in  the  hope  that  this  may  prove  a  med- 
ium for  the  clearer  expression  and  the  better  under- 
standing of  the  fundamental  doctrines  and  characteristic 
aims  of  modern  Judaism  and  a  historical  record  of  the 
development  of  the  content  and  expression  of  Jewish 
religious  thought.  It  is  anticipated  that  this  book  will 
be  of  interest  to  preachers  and  laymen  of  all  denomina- 
tions, who  may  desire  to  learn  what  Judaism  has  to 
say  in  regard  to  the  vital   questions  of  the  day. 

The  plan  of  the  book  has  been  suggested  by  its 
need.  The  sermons  for  the  festivals  occupy  a  larger 
space  than  is  given  to  the  other  discourses,  because 
they  reflect  clearly  and  directly  the  main  ideas  of  Ju- 
daism, and,  moreover,  because  they  will  be  of  special 
benefit  to  the  smaller  communities  which  have  no 
rabbis  and  wish  to  conduct  divine  services  on  the  chief 
holy  days. 

The  Committee. 


42?G9a 


CONTENTS. 


Preface iii 

Introduction.    By  Isaac  M.  Wise vii 

THE   NEW   year's   DAY. 

I.    The  Eternal  Verities.    By  David  Philipson 1^ 

II.    The  Message  of  the  New  Year.    By  Leon  Harrison. .  11 

III.    Seeing  God.    By  Max  Heller 18 

IV.    Our  Refuge.    By  Gustave  Gottheil 29  v 

V.    Religion's  Call.    By  Samuel  Schulman 36 

THE   DAY    OF   ATONEMENT. 

VI.    The  Glory  of  Religion.    By  K.  Kohler 47 

VII.    Sin  and  Forgiveness.    By  I.  S.  Moses  55 

VIII.    Sin  and  Penitence.    By  Stephen  S.  Wise 66 

IX.    A  Definition  of  Judaism.    By  I.  S.  Moses 74  ; 

X.  I  Am  a  Hebrew.    By  Leon  Harrison 87 

THE   FEAST   OF   TABERNACLES. 

XI.  The  Harvest  Festival.    By  Emil  G.  Hirsch 94 

XII.    Israel's  Religion  a  Message  of  Gladness. 

By  Samuel  Sale 114 

'hanukkah  and  purim. 

XIII.  The  Ancient  Anti-Semite  and  his  modern  success- 

ors.   By  Emil  G.  Hirsch 122 

XIV.  'Hanukkah.    By  G.  Gottheil 147 

XV.    Silence  Means  Ruin.    By  Max  Heller 151 


VI  CONTENTS. 

PASSOVKR. 

XVI.  Liberty  and  Light.    By  Oscar  J.  Cohen 158 

XVII.  Pour  Sentiments.    By  Max  Landsberg IG  J 

XVIII.  Judaism  and  Temperance.    By  G.  Gottheil 17G 

XIX.  Freedom,  Justice  and  Fidelity.  By  Isaac  M.  Wise.  180 

THE   FEAST   OF   WEEKS. 

XX.    The  Ten  Commandments.    By  Henry  Berkowitz .  189 

XXI.    Genius  in  History  and  the  History  of  Genius;  a 

Lecture.    By  Isaac  M.  Wise 200 

XXII.    The  Need  of  a  Living  Creed.    By  K.  Kohler 217 

XXIII.  Who  is' the  Real  Atheist  ?    By  Adolph  Moses ...  223 

XXIV.  What  we  Have  to  be  Thankful  for. 

By  Adolph  Moses 233 

XXV.    Judaism  and  the  Congress  of  Liberal  Religious 

Societies.    By  Joseph  Stolz  244 

XXVI.    Judaism  and  Liberal  Christianity. 

By  Moses  J.  Gries 250 

XXVII.    Jewish  Theology.    By  Joseph  Silverman 259 

XXVIII.  Judaism  and  Unitarianism.  By  Maurice  H.  Harris  270 

XXIX.    Dedication  Address.    By  Joseph  Stolz 285 

XXX.    Faith  With  Reason.    By  Joseph  Krauskopf 292 

XXXI.  The  Hope  of  Immortality.   By  Rudolph  Grossman  306 

XXXII.    The  Law.    By  Louis  Grossman 316 

XXXIIL    Life.    By  Samuel  Greenfield 329 

XXXIV.    The  Weaknesses  of  Bible  Heroes. 

By  Edward  N.  Calisch 338 

XXXV.    Manhood.    By  E.  Schreiber 844 

XXXVI.    The  Deluge.    By  F.  De  Sola  Mendes 353 

XXXVII.    The  Jewish  House  a  Sanctuary  of  the  Lord. 

By  B.  Felsenthal 360 


INTRODUCTION. 


I.       READING    OF   SCRIPTURES. 

The  reading  of  Holy  Writ,  in  devotional  assemblies, 
(called  in  Isaiah,  i,  13,  Snpa  «"^.p,)  on  the  Sabbath, 
New  Moon  and  Holy  Days,  followed  by  prayers  (Ibid, 
verse  15) — is  ancient  custom  in  Israel.  It  is  older 
than  the  Synagogue  ;  according  to  Talmud ical  statements, 
older  than  the  Temple  of  Solomon :  Moses  ordained  it 
and  Ezra  added  that  the  Thorah  should  also  be  read 
on  the  afternoon  of  every  Sabbath  and  on  every  Mon- 
day and  Thursday.  That  this  was  done  conscientiously 
during  Israel's  second  commonwealth  is  evident  from 
Nehemiah  viii  and  ix,  from  the  books  of  the  Macca- 
bees, the  Mishnah  in  Taanith  and  Yoma,  also  from 
the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  and  the  homilies  of  Philo, 
which  frequently  close,  like  the  five  books  of  Psalms, 
with  a  solemn  doxology.  The  numerous  provisions 
and  ordinances  in  the  ancient  rabbinical  literature  con- 
cerning the  How,  When  and  What  to  read  from  Holy 
Writ  in  public  assemblies,  are  no  mean  evidence  that 
this  reading  was  ancient  custom,  when  those  provisions 
had  become  laws. 

II.    EXPOUNDING    SCRIPTURES. 

As  long  as  the  Israelites  lived  in  their  own  land  and 
spoke  their  own  language,  the  mere  reading  of  Sacred 
Scriptures  may  have  sufficed  to  convey  the  sacred  les- 
sons to  the  popular  mind.  Still  also  then  and  there, 
as  is  evident  from  the  oratorical  tone  of  many  pro- 
phetical sections  and  didactic  psalms,  (especially 
Psalms  cxix,  II  Kings  iv,  22-23,  and  Isaiah  Ixvi,  23) 
sermons  were  preached  at  stated  times,  Holy  Writ 
vli 


VI  CONTENTS. 

PASSOVER. 

XVI.  Liberty  and  Light.    By  Oscar  J.  Cohen 158 

XVII.  Four  Sentiments.    By  Max  Landsberg 10  J 

XVIII.  Judaism  and  Temperance.    By  G.  Gottheil 17G 

XIX.  Freedom,  Justice  and  Fidelity.  By  Isaac  M.  Wise.  180 

THE   FEAST   OP   WEEKS. 

XX.    The  Ten  Commandments.    By  Henry  Berkowitz .  189 

XXI.    Genius  in  History  and  the  History  of  Genius;  a 

Lecture.    By  Isaac  M.  Wise 200 

XXII.    The  Need  of  a  Living  Creed.    By  K.  Kohler 21 7\/ 

XXIII.  Who  is- the  Real  Atheist  ?    By  Adolph  Moses ...  223 

XXIV.  What  we  Have  to  be  Thankful  for. 

By  Adolph  Moses 233 

XXV.    Judaism  and  the  Congress  of  Liberal  Religious 

Societies.    By  Joseph  Stolz  244 

XXVI.    Judaism  and  Liberal  Christianity. 

By  Moses  J.  Gries 250 

XXVII.  Jewish  Theology.    By  Joseph  Silverman 259 

XXVIII.  Judaism  and  Unitarianism.  By  Maurice  H.  Harris  270 

XXIX.  Dedication  Address.    By  Joseph  Stolz 285 

XXX.  Faith  With  Reason.    By  Joseph  Krauskopf 292 

XXXI.  The  Hope  of  Immortality.  By  Rudolph  Grossman  306 

XXXII.  The  Law.    By  Louis  Grossman 316 

XXXIIL  Life.    By  Samuel  Greenfield 329 

XXXIV.    The  Weaknesses  of  Bible  Heroes. 

By  Edward  N.  Calisch .338 

XXXV.    Manhood.    By  E.  Schreiber 844 

XXXVI.    The  Deluge.    By  F.  De  Sola  Mendes 353 

XXXVII.    The  Jewish  House  a  Sanctuary  of  the  Lord. 

By  B.  Felsenthal 360 


INTRODUCTION. 


I.      READING   OF   SCRIPTURES. 

The  reading  of  Holy  Writ,  in  devotional  assemblies, 
(called  in  Isaiah,  i,  13,  S"lpt2  ^>"^.p,)  on  the  Sabbath, 
New  Moon  and  Holy  Days,  followed  by  prayers  (Ibid, 
verse  15) — is  ancient  custom  in  Israel.  It  is  older 
than  the  Synagogue ;  according  to  Talmudical  statements, 
older  than  the  Temple  of  Solomon :  Moses  ordained  it 
and  Ezra  added  that  the  Thorah  should  also  be  read 
on  the  afternoon  of  every  Sabbath  and  on  every  Mon- 
day and  Thursday.  That  this  was  done  conscientiously 
during  Israel's  second  commonwealth  is  evident  from 
Nehemiah  viii  and  ix,  from  the  books  of  the  Macca- 
bees, the  Mishnah  in  Taanith  and  Yoma,  also  from 
the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  and  the  homilies  of  Philo, 
which  frequently  close,  like  the  five  books  of  Psalms, 
with  a  solemn  doxology.  The  numerous  provisions 
and  ordinances  in  the  ancient  rabbinical  literature  con- 
cerning the  How,  When  and  What  to  read  from  Holy 
Writ  in  public  assemblies,  are  no  mean  evidence  that 
this  reading  was  ancient  custom,  when  those  provisions 
had  become  laws. 

II.    EXPOUNDING    SCRIPTURES. 

As  long  as  the  Israelites  lived  in  their  own  land  and 
spoke  their  own  language,  the  mere  reading  of  Sacred 
Scriptures  may  have  sufficed  to  convey  the  sacred  les- 
sons to  the  popular  mind.  Still  also  then  and  there, 
as  is  evident  from  the  oratorical  tone  of  many  pro- 
phetical sections  and  didactic  psalms,  (especially 
Psalms  cxix,  II  Kings  iv,  22-23,  and  Isaiah  Ixvi,  23) 
sermons   were   preached    at    stated    times.    Holy    Writ 


Vlll  INTRODUCTION. 

being  expounded  by  prophetical  orators  or  other  men 
of  learning  and  inspiration.  When  Hebrew  was  no 
longer  the  people's  vernacular  and  the  environs  and 
circumstances  had  changed,  the  translator  and  expoun- 
der of  the  Hebrew  texts  had  to  come,  and  this  was 
the  Meturgam  in  tlie  synagogues,  academies  and  courts. 
These  were  the  first  actual  and  official  preachers. 
We  meet  with  the  Meturgam  among  the  oldest  Ta- 
naim  in  Palestine  and  the  Amoraim  and  Gaonim  of  the 
east,  down  to  the  tenth  Christian  century.  We  pos- 
sess the  sketches  and  fragments  of  their  sermons  and 
exhortations  in  the  Talmud ical  Hagadah,  the  Targu- 
mim,  the  ancient  Midrashim  and  Fesiktoth  including 
Aboth  of  Rabbi  Nathan,  Tana  debei  Eliah,  Sheiltoth  and 
Pirkei  Rabbi  Eliczer:  a  homiletic  literature,  in  bulk 
and  richness  of  thought,  in  poetical  forms  and  ora- 
torical ornamentation,  the  largest  and  most  valuable 
in  the  world's  literature  after  the  Bible.  The  liturgi- 
cal poets  of  the  synagogue  and  the  moralists  of  sub- 
sequent ages  down  to  our  time  derived  from  those 
ancient  homiletic  sources  their  inspiration,  their  mater- 
ial always,  and  the  form  very  frequently;  the  old 
preachers  did  the  same;  and  with  but  few  exceptions 
from  and  after  the  days  of  Mr.  Jacobson  it  is  still 
done  to  this  day.  Most  of  the  preachers  based  their 
discourses  not  merely  on  Holy  Writ  but  also— and 
not  seldom,  chiefly, — on  the  rabbinical  homiletic  litera- 
ture,  expounding  and    interpreting  both. 

Aside  of  Talmudical  Hagadath,  Targumim,  Midrash- 
im, Pesiktoth,  etc.  (as  mentioned  above),  we  possess  no 
homiletic  literature  prior  to  the  sixteenth  century,  except 
the  Derashoth  of  Rabbenu  Nissim,  the  Derashoth  of 
Rabbi  Moses  ben  Nachman,  the  exhortations  of  Jonah 
Girondi,  and  the  philosophical  sermons  of  Isaac  Arama 
and   Aba   Mari   Antoli. 


INTRODUCTION.  IX 

III.    THE     MAGGID     AND    DARSHON. 

The  Meturgam  was  superceded  by  the  Maggid,  also 
called  the  Baal  Darsho7i,  the  homiletic  preacher  of  the 
synagogue.  Their  literary  productions  are  called  De- 
rashoth  in  contradistinction  to  the  ancient  Mldrash. 
Both  terms  are  derived  from  t^^lT  "  to  inquire  "  ( Levi- 
ticus X,  16),  which  in  New  Hebrew  also  received  the 
meaning  of  expounding.  So  those  two  terms  sig- 
nified both  inquiry  and  expounding,  and  the  whole 
homiletic  literature,  ancient  and  modern,  pretends  to 
be  no  more  than  inquiries  into  and  expositions  of 
Holy  Writ.  The  preacher  is  the  expounder  of  the 
Law,   as  the  modern  phrase  runs. 

This  Derusha-literature  is  vast  and  varied.  Several 
thousands  of  such  sermons  were  published  mostly  in 
rabbinical  Hebrew;  some  were  also  published  in 
Spanish,  Italian  and  Dutch.  Zunz,  in  his  book  "Gottes- 
dienstliche  Vortraege,"  furnishes  an  historical  summary 
of  that  whole  homiletic  literature,  most  of  which  was 
adopted   by   Dr.  Graetz  in  his  "  History   of  the  Jews." 

There  exist  a  number  of  index  books  to  the  De- 
rashoth,  as  for  instance,  Asaph  ham  Mazkin,  by  Zacha- 
riah  of  Porto  (Rome,  1675).  Most  all  of  these  De- 
rashoths  expound  more  of  the  Rabbinical  than  of  the 
Biblical  literature,  are  more  witty  than  exegetic, 
more  smart  than  logical,  more  ethical  than  theolog- 
ical, and  nearly  all  without  organic  systematic  con- 
struction, with  many  bon  mots  strung  together  loosely. 
All  of  these  stand  upon  a  high  moral  plane,  more  or 
less  austere  and  ascetic  according  to  the  happy  or 
unhappy  conditions  of  the  preachers  and  people  at 
any   particular  time. 

IV.    THE   RETROGRESSION. 

From  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  to  nearly  the 
end   of    the  eighteenth     centuries     the    synagogue,     es- 


X  INTRODUCTION. 

}!Ocially  in  Germany  and  the  Eastern  countries 
steadily  declined  to  the  somher  and  disspirited  locahty 
for  prayer-meetings  and  the  performance  of  ceremonial 
observances.  Gradually  the  prayers  and  observances 
became  so  lengthy  and  all-important  that  no  time  for 
instruction  or  exhortation  was  left,  and  the  rabbis 
preached  only  a  few  times  a  year.  This  led  to  the 
belief  that  the  sermon  was  no  integral  portion  of  the 
divine  service.  If  the  Maggid  or  Darshon  did  preach 
at  all  it  was   in  the   afternoon   of  the  Sabbath. 

This  state  of  affairs  prevailed  almost  all  over  Eu- 
rope, and  America  also,  till  Moses  Mendelssohn,  with 
his  compeers  and  disciples,  started  the  reformatory 
commotion  among  the  German-speaking  Hebrews  of 
Europe.  The  French  revolution  and  subsequent  inva- 
sions on  the  continent  roused  the  benumbed  energies 
of  the  inert  masses  of  the  nations,  which  also  reacted 
upon  the  petrified  synagogue;  and  a  new  era  began 
in  Judaism.  Then  even  a  generation  had  to  pass 
away  before  the  spirit  could  return  to  the  dead  walls 
of  the  synagogue,  so  that  the  writer  of  this  summary 
not  onl}^  knew  the  first  preachers  in  the  synagogue : 
Mannheim er  in  Vienna,  Zunz  and  Sachs  in  Prague, 
Solomon  and  Kley  in  Hamburg,  Wolf  in  Copen- 
hagen,  and  later  on  Kreuzenach,  Hess,  Leopold 
Stein,  Abraham  Geiger,  Kirchenrath  Mayer,  Samuel 
Hirsch,  Samuel  Adler,  Holdheim,  Einhorn,  Phillipson, 
Wechsler,  Levy  and  Aub,  Prof.  Marks  in  London — 
but  was  himself  one  of  the  first  who,  fifty-three  years 
ago,  preached  in  the  synagogue  in  the  pure  ver- 
nacular of  the  country  and  made  the  sermon  an  inte- 
gral portion  of  the  divine  service.  So  young  is  the 
modern   sermon   in   the   synagogue. 

V.    THE    SERMON    IN    AMERICA. 

The   Israelites    coming  to    this  country   from   Europe 


INTRODUCTION.  XI 

direct  or  via  Brazil,  arrived  here  with  the  same  con- 
ceptions of  the  synagogue  and  divine  worship,  as  were 
entertained  by  their  brethren  abroad.  They  organized 
congregations,  benevolent  societies,  and  schools  for  re- 
ligious instruction  on  that  very  same  pattern,  accord- 
ing to  the  Portuguese,  German  or  Polish  rites.  The 
Parnass,  or  president,  was  the  autocrat  of  the  congre- 
gation, the  vestry  was  his  cabinet.  The  Hazan,  i.  e.,  the 
precentor,  was  the  minister,  the  reverend,  actually  the 
reader  of  the  prayers  and  Scriptures  and  the  master  of 
ceremonies.  In  the  smaller  congregations  the  Hazan  was 
the  factotum  ;  he  taught  the  children  to  read  Hebrew, 
performed  the  prescribed  ceremonial  observances,  and 
also  took  care  that  the  Kosher  meat  and  matzos  should 
be  uncontaminated.  The  first  preaching  Hazanim,  very 
respectable  and  profoundly  religious  pastors,  were  Rev. 
S.  M.  Isaacs  of  New  York,  Rev.  Isaac  Leeser  of  Phila- 
delphia, Rev.  Mr.  Nathan  and  Rev.  Mr.   Jacobs. 

Shortly  after  them  came  Rev.  Mr.  Posnanski  in  the 
reform  congregation  of  Charleston,  S.  C,  and  Rev.  Mr. 
Braun  in  the  reform  congregation  of  Baltimore.  They 
preached  only  occasionally;  and  in  Philadelphia,  a 
sermon  v\'as  preached  provided  the  Parnass  gave  the 
Hazan  permission.  Rev.  Isaac  Leeser  published  his 
sermons  (English),  and  this  is  the  only  homiletic 
literature  we  possess   from   those  primeval   days. 

In  1843,  Dr.  Merzbacher  came  to  New  York  from 
Fuerth,  Bavaria.  He  preached  in  the  three  German 
congregations  of  New  York  occasionally  and  volun- 
tarily, till  1845,  when  the  Emanuel  reform  congregation 
was  established  and  elected  him  their  permanent  rabbi- 
preacher.  The  same  year  Dr.  Max  Lilienthal  came  to 
New  York  from  Munich,  Bavaria,  and  was  elected  chief 
rabbi  and  permanent  preacher  of  the  three  German 
congregations,   to  preach  alternately  in  one  of  the  three 


Xll  INTRODtJCTION. 

synagogues.  Tlicse  Avcro  the  first  ordained  rabbis  that 
came  to  this  country  and  also  the  first  permanent 
preachers  in  the  American  synagogue.  Lilienthal  after- 
wards published  a  number  of  his  sermons  (English)  in 
the  American  Israelite,  his  book  of  German  sermons 
having  been  published  in  Europe  in  1839.  The  style  of 
those  sermons  was  the  puritanic,  profoundly  mor- 
alistic and  edifying,  in  the  very  spirit  and  tone 
of  Dr.   Salomon   of   Hamburg. 

July  26,  1846,  Isaac  M.  Wise  arrived  in  New  York, 
and  shortly  after  his  arrival  he  was  elected  rabbi  and 
permanent  preacher  of  the  Beth-El  Congregation  of 
Albany,  N.  Y.  He  preached  regularly  every  Sabbath 
and  Holy  Day  during  divine  service  in  the  morning 
up  to  1866;  when  in  Cincinnati  he  added  to  it  the 
Friday  evening  lecture  for  every  week  from  October 
to  May.  His  homiletic  productions  appeared  in  the 
Occident,  Asmonean,  American  Israelite,  Deborah  (German), 
and  in  various  political  and  literary  organs  almost  all 
over  the  land.  This  introduced  into  the  American  pul- 
pit the  philosophical  sermon  and  the  historical  lecture. 
Some  of  his  sermons  have  appeared  in  The  American 
Jewish  Pulpit,  a  volume  published  by  Bloch  &  Co.,  Cin- 
cinnati; and  many  of  his  lectures  have  also  appeared 
in   books,  reprints  from   the  American  Israelite. 

About  the  same  time,  James  K.  Gutheim  came  to 
America  from  Germany,  a  young  man,  talented  and 
aspiring.  In  1847  he  was  elected  Hazan  of  the  Bene 
Yeshurun  Congregation  in  Cincinnati.  He  was  the  first 
preacher  in  any  synagogue  west  of  the  Allegheny 
Mountains,  the  first  also  who  preached  in  English  in 
any  German  congregation.  Several  of  his  sermons  ap- 
peared in  the  Occident,  American  Isi^aelite  and  in  his 
book  called  "The  American  Pulpit."  His  style  was 
chiefly    the     sentimental,   more     puritanical    than   rab- 


INTRODUCTION.  XUl 

binical,  inclining  to  Isaac  Leeser's  pastoral  tone.  In 
and  shortly  after  the  year  1848  a  number  of  rabbi- 
preachers  came  to  America  and  occupied  pulpits  per- 
manently and  regularly.  The  most  noteworthy  of  them 
were  Rabbi  Kalisch  in  Cleveland,  Rabbi  Illowi  in  New 
York,  and  the  Rabbis  Reiss,  Guinzburg  and  Hochheimer 
in  Baltimore.  They  preached  well,  wrote  considerably 
for  public  organs,  especially  Mr.  Reiss  for  the  orthodox 
and  Mr.  Kalisch  for  the  reformatory  side,  but  con- 
tributed nothing  of  importance  to  our  homiletic  litera- 
ture, as  they  published  no  sermons  with  the  exception 
of  some  German  addresses  by  Rabbi  Hochheimer  in 
the  Deborah  and  elsewhere. 

In  the  year  1850  Dr.  Raphall  came  over  from  Eng- 
land. He  introduced  himself  to  the  public  with  six 
lectures  on  the  poetry  of  the  Bible.  He  was  elected 
rabbi-preacher  for  the  Bene  Yeshurun  Congregation  of 
New  York,  and  preached  there  with  great  success.  A 
number  of  his  sermons  were  published  in  various  jour- 
nals, and  but  one  of  them  preserved  in  a  collection  of 
addresses  on  the  slavery  question,  published  in  New 
York  in  1860.  Although  Dr.  Raphall  was  a  very  able 
pulpit  orator,  he  exercised  no  influence  on  the  Ameri- 
can pulpit.  Besides  the  Reverend  Hazanim  Henry  and 
Rosenfeld,  none  are  known  to  have  adopted  Raphall's 
style  and  diction.  The  sermons  published  in  Germany 
by  Mannheimer,  Mayer,  Ludwig  Phillipson,  Leopold 
Stein,  Prof.  Marks  in  London  and  Rev.  Mr.  Isaacs  of 
Liverpool  were  the  main  patterns  and  literature  of  the 
preaching  Hazanim  of  that  period,  up  to  1855. 

From  and  after  the  year  1855  there  came  to  this 
country  Dr.  Samuel  Adler,  Dr.  David  Einhorn,  Dr. 
Samuel  Hirsch,  Dr.  Deutsch  the  grammarian,  Dr.  El- 
kan  Cohen  and  Dr.  Schlesinger  ;  later  on  Dr.  Jastrow, 
Dr,  Szold ;    each  of  them  occupied  a  prominent    pulpit 


XIV  INTRODUCTION. 

in  the  eastern  part  of  our  country.  Then  came  Dr. 
Adolpii  Huebsch,  Dr.  M.  Mielziner,  Dr.  Isaac  Schwab. 
All  of  these  preachers,  being  learned  Talmudists,  stood 
in  the  middle  between  the  Derasha  of  olden  times  and 
the  modern  sermon,  and  understood  well  how  to 
harmonize  the  two  systems.  This  was  a  new  feature 
in  the  homiletic  literature,  especially  in  the  east,  where 
there  were  yet  men  w^ho  appreciated  the  sagacious  in- 
terpretation of  a  Midrash  or  an  ingenious  applica- 
tion of  a  rabbinical  maxim  or  story,  framed  into  a 
rationalistic  discourse  of  a  reformatory  character  or 
applied  philosophically.  Excepting  Dr.  Raphall  all 
these  preachers  belong  to  the  new  school,  and  all  ex- 
cepting  Gutheim   and    Wise  spoke    in   German  only. 

Another  new  element,  introduced  more  specially  by 
Dr.  Einhorn,  was  polemics  in  the  pulpit,  which  had 
been  entirely  unknown  here.  The  American  preacher, 
English  or  German,  reform  or  orthodox,  was  always 
sentimental,  philosophical  or  apologetic.  Enlighten- 
ment was  the  object  of  the  sermon  on  the  one  side, 
edification  on  the  other.  And  yet  Dr.  Einhorn  con- 
tributed the  largest  share  to  our  homiletic  literature 
in  his  "  Sinai "  and  in  the  posthumous  volume  pub- 
lished by   Dr.   Kohler. 

These  are  the  elements  with  which  the  sermon  in 
the  American  synagogue  started  and  became  not  only 
an  integral  part  but  the  main  part  of  the  divine 
service.  The  living  word  took  the  place  of  the  dead 
letter.  Here  begins  the  transition  from  the  German  to 
the  English,  from  the  foreign  to  the  American,  from 
the  derashic  to  the  modern  form  of  the  sermon, 
a  collection  of  which  has  been  compiled  in  this 
volume,  showing  the  progress  of  the  synagogal  pulpit 
in   the  first  half-century   of  its   existence. 

I,  M.  W. 


SERMONS. 


THE   ETERNAL   VERITIES. 


A  NEW  year's  sermon,  BY  REV.  DR.  DAVID  PHILIPSON. 


The  uppermost  thought  in  the  mind  of  the  serious 
man  on  days  such  as  this  is  the  transitoriness  of  things 
earthly.  The  New  Year's  Day  is  the  mile-stone  where- 
at the  traveler  o'er  life's  journey  halts,  and  resting 
for  a  brief  space  he  cannot  but  let  his  thoughts  en- 
gage themselves  with  the  significance,  if  there  be  any, 
of  the  way  he  has  traversed.  From  out  the  depths  of 
space  a  voice  seems  to  inquire  of  each  one  of  us,  as  it 
did  of  the  prophet  of  old  :  "Watchman,  what  of  the 
night?"  for  truly  we,  who  are  living  at  this  latest 
moment  of  time,  are  like  watchmen  standing  on 
the  highest  point  of  vantage,  peering,  peering  into  the 
night  of  the  future,  and  according  to  the  power  of  our 
mental  sight,  will  be  the  vision  that  is  unrolled  to  us. 
There  be  those  who  will  give  back  answer  to  that 
questioning  voice ;  the  night  is  all  dark,  life  is  a  blank, 
vanity  of  vanities ;  man  were  better  off  had  he  never 
been  born.  For  such  the  firmament  of  life  is  all  o'er- 
cast  with  thick  clouds ;  the  stars  of  hope  are  hid ;  the 
bright  messenger  of  coming  dawn  unnoted.  But  pessim- 
ism is  not  the  true  philosophy  of  life;  as  night  is  not 
real,  but  only  the  absence  of  light,  so  is  pessimism  but 
the  absence  of  the  true  concej^tion  of  life  and  its 
meaning. 

The  strongest  refutation  to  these  wailings  is  offered 
by  the  past  achievements  of  the  race.  In  the  light  of 
(1) 


' '  ^  '    '  '    '  THE   ETERNAL  VERITIES. 

the  progress,  the  advancement,  the  civilization  that 
have  gone  before,  the  shadows  conjured  up  by  pes- 
simists dissolve  like  the  fancies  of  a  mind  diseased. 
Trace  the  philosophy  of  the  pessimist  to  its  source  and 
3^ou  will,  in  all  likelihood,  find  that  it  took  its  rise  in 
some  physical  ailment  or  in  some  individual  disappoint- 
ment. Then  tliere  be  other  watchmen  on  the  ramparts 
of  life  vv^ho  in  response  to  the  voice,  "What  of  the  night, 
w^hat  of  the  future?"  give  back  the  careless  reply,  it 
matters  not  to  us  what  the  future  may  have  to  say; 
let  us  eat  and  drink  and  be  merry,  for  to-morrow  we 
die;  let  us  live  in  the  present  moment.  Wherefore  be 
serious?  wherefore  be  thoughtful?  Let  us  quaff  the 
cup  of  sensual  delight.  The  pleasure-philosophy  has 
its  myriads  of  devotees;  multitudes  crowd  the  chariots 
whose  streamers  bear  its  motto.  But  is  this  the  true 
philosophy  ?  Is  life  best  lived  in  the  mad  chase  after 
the  pleasures  of  the  senses  ?  Answer,  ye  hundreds  who 
have  made  sensuality  your  god  and  pleasure  your 
divinity;  ansv/er  truly,  ye  thousands  who  have  given 
the  strength  of  your  young  years  to  the  pursuit  of 
sense  delights.  Dies  not  the  pleasure  in  the  very 
moment  of  its  satisfaction?  Is  the  game  worth  the 
pursuit?  Appetites  cloyed,  senses  wearied,  existence 
blase,  the  light  of  life  blurred  and  dimmed  by  the  haze 
of  satiety,  are  not  these  the  result  of  your  devotion  and 
worship  at  the  shrine  of  euda^monism  and  epicurean- 
ism? So,  then,  we  cannot  accept  this  as  the  true 
solution  to  the  question  of  the  voice  crying  unto  us. 
Watchman,  what  of  life?  For  further  answer,  let  us 
turn  to  another  of  our  great  prophets  unto  whom,  also,  a 
voice  came  out  of  the  depths  of  reflection.  "A  voice 
saith,  Proclaim ;  and  I  said,  "What  shall  I  proclaim  ? 
All  flesh  is  grass  and  all  its  goodliness  as  the  flower  of 
the   field  ;    the   grass   withereth,  the  flower  fadeth,   but 


the  word  of  our  God  will  stand  firm  forever" — (Isaiah 
xl,  6.)  An  answer,  the  result  of  experience,  observation 
and  faith.  No  one  can  close  his  eyes  to  the  facts  oi 
life,  and  therefore  no  one,  least  of  all  the  prophet, 
would  for  a  moment  deny  the  transitoriness,  the 
change,  the  passing  away  of  earthly  things. 

Yes,  the  grass  withers,  the  flower  fades,  all  flesh  is  as 
grass,  but —but —there  is  the  permanent,  undying,  ever- 
lasting, eternal  element  at  the  ground  of  things.  The 
phenomenon  is  transitory,  the  essence  is  permanent.  The 
appearance  is  passing,  the  principle  is  eternal.  Let  us 
make  this  thought  the  burden  of  our  reflections  on  this 
New  Year's  morning. 

Unto  the  majority  of  men  the  most  j)alpable  signifi- 
cance of  a  day  that  marks  the  passing  of  the  years  is  the 
never-ceasing  flow  of  time.  There  is  no  present,  to  speak 
of.  Even  as  I  address  you,  the  present  moment  passes 
into  the  lap  of  the  past  and  takes  its  place  in  the  silent 
shades  of  the  eternity  that  is  behind  us.  But  with  the 
passing,  with  the  never-ceasing  flow  of  the  currents  in  the 
ocean  of  time,  there  is  joined  the  permanency  of  things 
real  that  passes  not  away,  but  belongs  to  the  undying 
order  of  God's  everlasting  creation.  The  grass  that  now 
flourishes  on  your  lawn  will  wither  when  the  biting 
breath  of  the  frost  will  nip  it,  but  the  principle  of  growth, 
God's  everlasting  law,  works  eternally;  it  is  permanent; 
that  particular  growth  of  grass  will  pass  away,  but  there 
is  the  permanent  element  that  passes  not  with  it,  but  will 
cause  the  new  growth  to  appear  in  the  coming  spring- 
time; the  flower  fades,  the  beauteous  rose  withers  and 
dies,  but  that  which  made  the  flower  dies  not.  God's 
everlasting  law  of  growth  that  transfigures  the  dull  brown 
and  black  of  the  clod  of  earth  into  the  brilliant  red,  the 
modest  blue,  the  glowing  yellow  and  the  dazzling  white 
of,  the  flowers  of  the  field  is  the  permanent  element.     The 


€  THE   KTKRNAL   verities. 

particular  flower  may  fade,  this  or  that  growth  may 
wither,  hut  the  principle  of  the  flower,  that  which  is  in 
reality  the  plant,  neither  fades  nor  withers;  it  stands  for- 
ever; it  belongs  to  the  eternal  scheme  of  things.  This  is 
the  principle  that  runs  through  all  creation,  through  all 
history,  through  all  life.  Time  and  eternity,  appearance 
and  reality,  phenomenon  and  principle,  permanence  and 
transitoriness ;  these  are  the  two  sides  of  the  coin  of  ex- 
istence, and  when  we  bewail  the  passing  of  time  let  us 
not  forget  that  this  is  only  the  now  of  eternity,  and  when 
the  appearance  of  things  earthly  fades  away,  let  us  recall 
the  fact  of  the  reality  that  persists  and  lasts. 

As  the  grass  and  the  flower  are  the  appearances  that 
bring  to  our  visual  perception  the  patent  proof  of  the 
existence  of  the  principle  of  growth,  so  in  all  things  is  the 
principle  exemplified  by  the  phenomenon — the  real  by 
the  appearance.  Let  me  illustrate:  The  sculptor,  by 
power  of  his  genius,  conjures  up  within  his  own  soul  a 
dream  of  beauty;  before  the  clay  that  is  to  be  molded 
is  touched,  the  statue  is  complete  in  the  sculptor's 
brain;  with  mallet  and  chisel  it  is  to  be  given  appear- 
ance, but  that  statue  may  not  express  to  the  onlooker 
a  tithe  of  the  beauty  and  grace  and  loveliness  that  the 
artist  dreamt;  that  particular  statue  may  be  destroyed, 
but  the  eternal  laws  of  form  and  beauty  that  gave  it 
birth  exist  forever,  and  now  and  then  in  other  brains 
will  take  concrete  shape  and  produce  new  appearances. 
The  harmonies  that  the  great  composers  hear  and  shape 
into  palpable  musical  compositions  are  not  confined  to 
the  physical  sense  of  hearing.  Beethoven,  though  deaf, 
heard  harmonies  sublime  that  neither  you  nor  I  nor 
other  men  are  sensible  of.  His  soul  was  vibrant  with 
the  music  of  eternity,  the  real  music  whereof  his  sym- 
phonies and  sonatas  are  only  expressions,  and  though 
every  masterpiece  of  musical  composition  be  swept  away, 


.•ra^  ETEIWAL  VEH1TIE6.  5 

though  every  painting  and  statue  be  destroyed,  the  real 
thing,  God's  eternal  laws  of  beauty  and  of  harmony 
existing  on,  would  come  to  light  again  in  the  souls  of 
inspired  genius  somewhere  and  somehow  on  this  i)lanet 
The  real  things  are  impalpable;  the  significant  facts  of 
life  are  intangible.  Eye  has  not  seen  them,  nor  car  heard ; 
they  are  the  permanent  things,  whereof  the  examples 
that  we  with  our  physical  eyes  see  are  but  the  illustrations. 
They  are  the  over-soul  whereof  one  of  our  philosophers 
wrote. 

Holds  not  the  same  thing  true  of  the  great  principles 
whereon  life  and  society  rest?  Do  not  the  notions  of 
righteousness,  justice,  love,  present  this  same  quality  of 
eternal  principle  and  transitory  appearance  ?  Justice,  we 
say,  is  one  of  the  eternal  laws  of  the  universe,  but  no  one 
has  ever  seen  this  principle  of  justice ;  all  that  we  see  are 
the  institutions  of  states  and  nations,  courts  and  tribunals, 
laws  and  codes ;  finite  examples  of  the  eternal  principle 
that  rules  and  without  obedience  to  which  society  would 
go  to  ruin  and  human  life  would  be  impossible.  Men,  in  the 
course  of  the  world's  history,  have  time  and  again  violated 
the  demands  and  commands  of  justice,  but  not  for  long ; 
the  eternal  right  has  vindicated  itself  each  and  every  time 
in  the  ruin  and  overthrow  of  the  society  whose  superstruc- 
ture was  not  supported  on  the  pillars — righteousness  and 
justice.  And  yet  who  has  ever  seen  this  abstract  thing, 
justice,  who  has  ever  grasped  this  impalpable  thing,  right- 
eousness ?  Forums,  temples  of  justice,  court-houses,  tri- 
bunals, these  are  the  temporary  abiding  places  of  justice, 
but  they  are  it  not.  They  have  passed  away,  but  justice 
passes  never.  The  grass  withers,  the  flower  fades,  but  the 
word  of  God,  the  eternal  principle,  exists  on  forever.  The 
buildings  on  the  forum  of  Rome,  where  justice  was  meted 
out,  crumbled  into  ruins,  but  justice  passed  not  away. 
The  temple  of  Jerusalem,  wherein  gathered  Israel's  great 


e 


THE  ETERNAL  VERITIES. 


law-making  body,  the  Sanhedrin,  fell  a  prey  to  the  flames, 
but  justice  lives  on.  The  Areopagus  of  Athens,  where 
sat  the  elders  in  council,  has  long  since  ceased  to  be  a  hill 
of  judgment,  but  justice  holds  high  place  still  in  the  uni- 
verse, and  so  though  Capitol  at  Washington  and  Parlia- 
ment House  at  London  and  Palace  of  Justice  at  Paris, 
and  Rathhaus  at  Berlin  and  all  great  homes  that  men 
have  built  for  the  making  of  laws  and  the  administration 
of  justice  pass  away.  The  great,  permanent  underlying 
principle  of  justice  will  live  on  and  new  homes  wherein 
its  spirit  finds  expression  will  rise  in  all  parts  of  this 
earth.  "Righteousness  and  justice  are  the  props  of  God's 
throne,"  sang  the  Psalmist,  or,  in  other  words,  the  sup- 
port of  the  universe ;  the  invisible  principle  is  the  per- 
manent element,  the  visible  appearance  but  transitory. 

And  does  not  this  same  contention  hold  true  of  kind- 
ness and  goodness  and  love  ?  Is  not  the  principle  of  love 
eternal,  its  various  appearances  in  the  life  of  men  with 
one  another  but  transitory?  Beautiful  indeed  are  the 
forms  it  takes  on — the  unselfish  love  of  parent  for  child, 
the  mutual  love  of  husband  and  wife,  the  uncalculating 
affection  of  friend  for  friend,  but,  though  these  i3ass  away, 
love  dies  not.  Myriads  of  mothers  have  lost  their  hearts' 
treasure,  in  numberless  instances  life's  partner  has  passed 
from  the  side  of  the  faithful  associate,  frequently  love  of 
friend  has  grown  cold,  but  "yet  love  lives,  a  throbbing 
principle  of  the  universe.  These  appearances  are  transi- 
tory, the  principal  is  eternal.  No  matter  though  the 
special  foundations  and  institutions  on  earth  that  men 
have  reared  in  the  name  of  justice  live  their  day,  no 
matter  though  love  in  particular  instances  be  transient  as 
human  life,  these  things  in  themselves  remain  the  eternal, 
undying  laws  of  God. 

And  friends,  if  this  principle  of  the  permanent  and  the 
transitory,  the  eternal  and  the  temporal,  holds  good  in 


THE   ETERNAL  VERITIES.  7 

the  applications  of  justice,  love,  peace,  it  holds  no  less 
true  in  religion.  There  are  many  who  will  go  to  any 
length  you  desire  in  the  application  of  the  idea  of  growth 
in  any  of  the  departments  of  life,  but  when  it  comes  to 
religion  they  would  apply  the  motto  7ioli  me  tangere;  they 
would  separate  religion  from  all  other  provinces  of  life, 
and  erect  an  impassable  Chinese  wall  between  the  so- 
called  secular  and  sacred  precincts.  They  will  grant 
you  that  men  have  had  different  notions  about  justice 
in  different  ages,  and  placed  different  interpretations 
upon  it;  that  some  things  which  were  considered  penal 
offenses  in  the  England  of  one  hundred  years  ago  are 
not  to  be  so  regarded  now;  that  the  Spartan  idea  of 
wrong-doing  does  not  coincide  with  our  present  concep- 
tion. They  will  grant  you  that  in  the  arts  of  war  and 
peace,  of  trade  and  industry,  in  the  provinces  of  man- 
ners and  customs,  of  thought  and  art,  expression  has 
changed,  and  should  change  with  time,  but  in  religion 
they  will  not  grant  it ;  what  was  must  remain ;  what  has 
become  must  be  guarded.  And  yet,  if  there  be  one 
province  wherein  this  law  of  the  permanent  and  the 
transitory,  the  eternal  and  the  temporal,  does  hold,  it  is 
in  that  of  religion,  for  religion  is  not  alone  a  matter  of 
thought;  it  is  also  a  matter  of  custom,  not  alone  of  specu- 
lation on  the  eternal  verities,  but  also  the  clothing  of 
these  verities  in  forms  that  appeal  to  men  and  women. 
Now,  if  men's  minds  grow  with  the  passing  of  the  ages, 
it  stands  to  reason  that  what  appealed  to  one  generation 
may  not  appeal  to  another.  Bloody  sacrifices  once 
appeared  the  meet  and  fit  form  of  worship  of  the  Most 
High ;  us  of  this  day  this  mode  of  worship  would  disgust. 
Religious  forms  and  expressions,  as  all  others,  are  the 
temporal,  the  transitory  elements ;  the  eternal  principles 
lying  at  the  root  of  religion  are  the  permanent  elements. 
,  Among  us,  in  Judaism,  this  has  come,  or  should  have 


8  THE   ETERNAL   VERITIES. 

come,  by  this  time,  to  be  particularly  understood,  but 
ever  and  anon  a  wave  of  agitation  sweeps  our  JcAvish  life 
that  indicates  the  contrary.  Such  is  the  occasional  de- 
mand for  a  definition  of  Judaism.  Such  is  also  the 
periodic  cry  bewailing  the  condition  of  affairs  within  the 
pale  of  the  faith.  I  believe  the  best  answer  that  can  be 
given  to  all  such  outbursts  is  the  lesson  which  I  have 
drawn  from  this  day,  viz. :  The  fact  of  the  existence  every- 
where and  in  all  things  of  eternal,  permanent  elements 
and  transitory,  temporal  appearances.  Two  points,  and 
only  two,  are  essential  in  the  definition  of  Judaism,  if 
definition  there  can  be  and  must  be,  and  these  are  the 
monotheistic  principle  and  righteousness  in  action,  God 
and  duty.  So  taught  Moses,  so  taught  Isaiah  and  Amos, 
Jeremiah  and  Micah,  Hosea  and  Zechariah;  so  taught 
Hillel  and  Akiba,  if  authority  we  require.  Ethical 
monotheism  is  what  Judaism,  in  its  essence,  is.  These 
are  the  eternal  principles. 

Now,  of  course,  like  all  other  systems  of  thought  and 
practice,  Judaism  has  passed  through  various  stages  of 
growth  and  development.  Among  whatever  people  the 
Jews  lived,  from  them  they  adopted  customs  and  forms, 
many  and  various,  so  that  the  students  who  have  given 
themselves  to  tracing  the  origin  of  customs  and  cere- 
monies among  the  Jews  have  found  that  many  of  these 
had  an  extra-Jewish  origin.  Customs,  forms,  ceremonies 
grow.  Doctrines,  too,  have  their  day,  and  pass  away. 
Men's  minds,  thank  God,  stand  not  still.  The  glory 
of  our  faith  is  that  it  cannot  be  confined  within 
the  narrow  lines  of  a  creed,  for  ''every  creed  is 
arrested  development."  Judaism  is  too  broad  an 
experience  to  be  limited  by  any  phrase  of  definition, 
for  to  define  Judaism  properly  one  would  have  to  tell  its 
whole  growth  and  history,  all  the  stages  through  which  it 
has   passed,  all  the  thoughts  to  which  it  has  given  rise. 


THE  ETERNAL  VERITIES.  9 

Judaism  is  not  confined  within  the  covers  of  the  Bible, 
for  Judaism  made  the  Bible,  the  Bible  made  not  Judaism. 
The  grand  words  within  the  Book  of  Books  are  the  result 
of  the  working  of  the  spirit  of  Judaism,  of  the  ethical 
monotheism  among  men  ;  so  that  even  though  the  books 
of  the  Bible  were  to  be  destroyed  and  disappear,  the  spirit 
of  Judaism  would  still  live,  for  it  is  the  eternal  element 
whereof  the  Bibical  books  are  the  expression.  Judaism 
is  broader  than  its  literature,  for  Judaism  made  it — it 
made  not  the  faith.  Judaism  is  broader  than  its  history, 
for  Judaism  made  its  history;  its  history  made  not  it. 
Judaism  is  broader  than  any  forms,  ceremonies,  customs  ; 
for  Judaism  made  them  when  they  were  needed,  and 
when  they  are  no  longer  expressive  of  the  needs  of  its 
worshipers  they  must  pass  away  ;  they  are  not  necessary 
for  the  preservation  of  the  faith.  Judaism  is  broader 
than  any  prayers  and  prayer-books,  for  Judaism  gave  rise 
to  the  prayers  and  the  prayer-books,— not  they  to  it,  and 
though  every  prayer  that  has  been  spoken  or  written 
should  disappear,  the  spirit  of  Judaism  should  call  forth 
new  prayers  and  aspirations  to  the  throne  of  the  Infinite. 
Judaism  is  broader  than  any  language,  even  the  Hebrew 
language,  and  even  though  that  language  should  disap- 
pear entirely  from  the  face  of  the  earth,  the  religion 
would  not  disappear,  for  the  Hebrew  language  made  not 
Judaism ;  it  was  its  first  vehicle  of  expression,  but  the 
spirit  of  the  religion  was  not  bound  to  it.  Judaism  is 
broader  than  any  institution,  custom,  prayer,  day  or 
tongue  and,  therefore,  because  it  is  so  broad  it  cannot  be 
defined  in  a  few  pat  words  or  phrases,  as  a  dictionary 
would  do.  Our  religion  bases  on  ethical  monotheism;/ 
this  is  the  foundation ;  all  else  is  growth,  development,! 
that  must  be  properly  understood. 

Is  not  this  eternal  element  in  our  faith  broad  enough, 
sufficient  enough  for  any  one  to  go  on  ?    The  belief  in  the 


10  THE   ETERNAL   VERITIES. 

one  God  of  justice  and  love,  and  right  action  among  men, 
the  development  of  these  principles  being  evidenced  by 
the  long  past  and  the  growth  of  the  faith,  the  expression 
that  the  religion  has  taken  on  among  us  being  but 
another  stadium  in  its  growth.  No  man  can  tell  what 
the  next  one  hundred  years  will  bring  forth,  but  this  we 
do  know,  and  of  this  we  can  rest  assured,  that  the  eternal 
principles  will  live  on  forever,  while  the  human  growths 
and  institutions,  developments  and  customs  will  pass  away 
and  give  way  to  others  proper  for  their  day  ^and  time. 
This  in  every  department  of  life ;  whether  we  will  or  no, 
the  eternal  realities,  which  though  not  seen  of  us  are  yet 
more  real  than  the  appearances  we  do  visually  perceive, 
compel  us ;  ours  be  it  to  so  shape  our  lives  and  actions 
that  they  shall  be  on  a  line  with  the  undying  verities  of 
justice,  love  and  truth. 

What  a  glorious  faith  this  is  to  take  with  us  from  our 
worship  on  this  day  that  i)reaches  the  reality  of  perma- 
nent good  and  right  despite  the  transitory  and  temporal 
character  of  appearances.  Unto  him  oppressed  by  in- 
justice its  voice  rings  out  its  cheer,  despair  not,  the  world 
is  governed  by  justice,  the  right  triumphs  ever ;  unto  him 
from  whose  life  the  light  of  love  seems  to  have  vanished, 
its  voice  says  in  soothing  tones,  look  up,  love  dies  not,  love 
is  eternal,  ruling  now  and  forever,  unto  us  all  it  sounds 
the  good  tidings,  though  grass  wither  and  flower  fade, 
though  things  pass  and  are  no  more,  life  is  laid  on  the 
everlasting  foundations  of  right  and  justice,  in  the  end 
there  is  compensation  for  all  things.  God's  word  is  tried, 
enduring  forever;  God's  justice  is  sure,  righteousness 
reigns  in  His  world,  God's  grace  abounds.  His  love  o'er- 
shadows  all.     Amen! 


THE  MESSAGE  OF  THE  NEW  YEAR. 


BY  RABBI  LEON  HARRISON,  TEMPLE  ISRAEL,  ST.  LOUIS. 


Text:  "The  grass  withereth,  the  flower  fadeth:  But  the  word 
of  our  God  shall  stand  forever."—  Isa.  xl.  8. 

It  is  the  season  of  transition.  .  The  soil  is  carpeted  with 
the  cast-off  clothing  of  the  forests.  Like  Oriental 
mourners  stand  the  trees,  with  garments  tattered  and 
autumnal  dust  heaped  upon  their  heads.  Nature  is  dis- 
robing for  her  winter  sleep,  and  soon  a  winding  sheet  of 
purest  white  will  be  spun  for  her  by  those  ancient  weavers, 
frost  and  snow,  and  ice  and  wintry  tempests.  The 
summer  is  ended.  The  world's  scenery  is  being  shifted, 
and  between  the  acts  is  heard  the  slow  music  of  the  winds, 
chanting  funereal  dirges,—  Change,  the  theme.  Destruction 
the  composer ;  and  from  tlie  oldest  libretto  of  the  nations, 
the  words,  graphic  in  statement,  seveie  in  simplicity,  yet 
triumphant  in  promise,  "The  grass  withereth,  the  flower 
fadeth,  but  the  Word  of  our  God  shall  stand  forever." 

The  words  are  apt,  the  thought  rich,  the  lesson  timely 
— for  the  season  is  the  text  and  nature  the  preacher. 

Nature  is  an  illustration  of  man,  and  man  of  nature. 
Nature  is  more  than  half  human,  and  man  more  than  half 
natural.  Do  not  brooks  sing,  and  the  sunbeams  dance  ? 
Are  not  the  "waves  cruel  and  the  heavens  kind  ?  And 
similarly  man  fades,  his  youth  withers,  he  enjoys  his 
spring  and  his  winter,  he  has  roots  and  branches.  Nature 
is  the  dictionary  of  man ;  man  the  vocabulary  of  nature. 

My  text  describes  vegetation  on  its  death-bed,  as  its 
most  chariacteristic  phase,  most  suggestive  to  us.    We  are 

(U) 


12  THE  MESSAGE  OF  THE  NEW  YEAR. 

called  mortals  because  we  are  mortal,  because  we  must  die. 
We  are  all  under  sentence  of  death  —the  time,  the  place, 
the  details  as  unknown  to  us  as  to  the  slayer  under  the 
new  laws.  All  things  earthly  must  perish.  Birth, 
implies  death,  the  coming  of  the  new,  the  departure  of 
the  old.  Therefore  I  speak  to  you  this  morning,  on  this 
solemn  holy  day  of  Israel,  concerning  its  two- fold  mean- 
ing as  end  and  beginning.  Over  the  new  gateway  of  time 
that  we  dedicate  I  write  the  prophetic  verse,  as  epitaph 
and  exhortation.  I  take  a  time-worn  theme  because  it 
needs  repetition.  I  preach  to  you  the  religious  arithmetic 
of  division  instead  of  multiplication,  of  subtraction  instead 
of  addition.  I  know  that  this  is  a  familiar  message.  I 
know  that  you  have  heard  it  before.  But  when  the 
sexton  rings  the  Sunday  church  bell  to  notify  pious 
attendants  of  their  devotions  he  does  not  ring  one  peal. 
He  is  not  satisfied  with  one  chime.  He  ding-dongs  the 
bell  into  their  ears;  its  iron  tongue  repeats  the  same 
clamorous  call  until  all  must  hear.  The  preacher  is  the 
church  bell  of  the  pulpit.  He  is  a  wedding  bell  and 
a  funeral  bell.  He  is  also  an  alarm  bell.  When  men 
drift  and  do  not  steer,  he  must  warn  them.  When  they 
live  as  if  they  would  never  die,  when  they  pursue 
shadows  instead  of  substance,  when  they  clean  forget  the 
statutes  of  eternal  laws,  he  must  cry  out  to  them, 
splendid  in  their  corruption,  like  the  autumn  leaves  in 
decay  and  dissolution  :  "The  grass  withereth,  the  flower 
fadeth,  but  the  Word  of  our  God  shall  stand  forever." 

There  is  here  no  needless  repetition.  The  clauses  are 
independent  thoughts.  The  sentence  is  a  code  of  morals 
and  a  system  of  religion.  It  covers  the  whole  of  human 
life. 

I.  Verily  "The  grass  withereth."  Yet  for  a  season  it 
feeds  cattle — though  only  cattle.  And  human  herds, 
heedless    of   the    butcher's    knife,    greedily    browse    on 


THE  MESSAGE  OF  THE   ^EW  YE  Alt.  13 

grass — grass,  the  einblem  of  material  tilings.  But 
they  must  buy  their  grass  for  money.  And  how  the 
crowd  scrambles  for  money !  What  balances  are 
these  I  see  blind  Fortune  holding  in  her  uncertain 
grasp?  On  the  one  scale  of  the  balance  are  yellow 
coins,  and  on  the  other  human  sweat  and  blood  and 
toil  and  tears  and  groans,  yea,  life  itself,  and  death.  New 
weights  and  measures  !  The  equivalent  of  wealth  !  The 
tragic  price  of  current  cash!     The  valuation  of  grass  ! 

What  keen  thought,  what  intense  labor,  what  imgrudg- 
ing  sacrifices  are  expended  by  men  for  gold !  They  are 
the  martyrs  of  money.  The  market  is  their  rack,  the  ex- 
change their  prison  house,  and  before  they  die  they  are 
buried — in  business.  Natural  sympathies  decay,  poor 
relations  are  cold-shouldered,  right  and  wrong  become 
rights  and  wrongs.  Good  is  exchanged  for  goods.  A  new 
disease  is  clutching  moneyed  Am<3rica.  We  are  suffering 
from  fatty  degeneration — of  the  purse. 

You  have  all  more  than  you  actually  need  to  live  and 
make  life  worth  living.  Consecrate  some  of  your  super 
fluity  to  ideal  ends.  What  do  you  live  for  ?  What  are 
you  toiling  for  ?  The  limit  of  purchased  happiness  is  fixed. 
You  cannot  buy  more  than  a  certain  amount  of  pleasure, 
of  food,  shelter,  clothing,  physical  enjoyment.  And  they 
are  no  permanent  investment.  They  are  transient.  The 
draught  of  pleasure  contains  its  own  emetic.  You  will, 
every  one  of  you,  be  bankrupt  and  poverty  stricken — when 
six  feet  under  ground.  Your  gold  eagles  will  spread  their 
wings  and  fly  away.  Your  enjoyments  will  nauseate  you. 
Pleasures  pall,  gold  melts,  youth  fades,  the  body  decays. 
"The  grass  withereth." 

II.  And  "The  flower  fadeth."  Yes,  cattle  raisers  may 
value  grass  as  the  only  staple,  but  in  the  garden  of 
humanity  cabbage  heads  are  not  the  only  product.  Grass 
and   cabbage    heads   are  the    democracy    of   vegetation. 


14  THE  MESSAGE  OP  THE   NEW  YEAlJ. 

Flowers  are  its  aristocracy.  Sunflowers  flame,  roses  blush 
at  their  own  beauty,  lilies  toss  their  proud  white  heads 
above  their  rivals,  each  blossom  a  stanza  in  the  fugitive 
poetry  of  nature.  The  flowers  are  the  stars  of  the  earth, 
even  as  the  stars  are  the  flowers  of  the  heavens. 

But  they  are  only  shooting  stars.  Their  bridal  drapery 
is  soon  stripped  ofl"  by  that  boisterous  wooer,  the  harsli 
east  wind.  They  make  their  debut  for  a  season  only  to 
retire  and  die.     They  are  types  of  the  flower  of  mankind. 

We  are  full  of  intellectual  pride.  When  we  have 
earned  grass  to  live,  we  try  to  blossom.  And  this  century 
is  tlie  summer  of  civilization.  How  we  have  annihilated 
time  and  space;  how  we  have  fastened  a  bit  in  the  teeth  of 
the  winds  and  chained  the  lightning  to  our  chariots! 
Science  has  torn  off  the  veil  of  nature ;  art  has  painted  her 
portrait.  And  we  are  supremely  happy,  because  we  fancy 
we  are  supremely  wise.  I  am  glad  that  we  are  not.  I 
rejoice  that  mankind  is  yet  weak  and  ignorant.  There 
are  still  fields  to  conquer,  there  is  still  work  to  be  done, 
and  there  is  still  humility  to  be  learned.  We  blunder 
into  knowledge.  Copernicus,  Galileo  and  Newton  ad- 
vanced by  contradicting  each  other.  Philosophy  has  been 
a  series  of  battles,  and  religion  a  bonfire  of  martj^rs  and 
prophets. 

What  do  we  know  to-day?  Not  much  more  than  how  to 
label  our  ignorance.  What  do  we  do  to-day  ?  Not 
much  more  than  enjoy  more  comforts  during  the  same 
term  of  years   as  our  ancestors. 

Our  boasted  knowledge  is  fragmentary,  changeable  and 
unsatisfactor3^  Yet  it  is  invading  religion.  It  is  turning 
your  heads.  When  Disraeli  was  contesting  a  parliament- 
ary election  he  spoke  at  a  turbulent  public  meeting  as  an 
independent  candidate  to  the  voters.  They  were  dis- 
satisfied with  his  independent  principles,  and  the  cry  arose, 
"What  is   your    platform?     Where   do   you   stand,  sir? 


fttE  Message  of  tjie  i^ew  year.  1^ 

Where  do  you  stand?"  "On  my  head,"  was  the  quick 
reply  of  Disraeli,  ''on  my  head."  His  platform  was 
his  head.  He  took  his  stand  upon  his  brains.  And  this 
generation  as  a  whole  is  trying  to  stand  on  its  head ;  to 
plant  itself  upon  imperfect  information,  to  substitute 
thinking  for  feeling,  and  facts  for  faith. 

It  cannot  last  long  —this  insane  self-reliance,  this  turn- 
ing our  back  on  the  past,  because  we  know  more  than 
our  fathers.  I  have  shown  you  that  knowledge  is  only 
one  crop  from  the  harvest  field  of  truth,  that  it  fades  and 
must  give  way  at  new  seasons  to  new  growths.  And 
vague  as  it  is  by  very  nature,  it  is  even  more  unsub- 
stantial as  a  basis  of  life.  Figuratively,  as  well  as 
literally,  human  beings  cannot  walk  around  on  their 
heads  either  very  long  or  very  happily.  You  can  think 
and  speak  from  the  brain,  but  3^ou  must  live  from  the 
heart.  Do  men  ever  boast  that  they  have  a  big  head? 
But  they  pride  themselves  on  their  big  hearts.  Are 
we  drawn  to  a  good  head  half  as  much  as  to  a  good 
heart  ?  What  a  world  of  difference  there  is  between 
being  headstrong  and  being  hearty. 

Care  and  sorrow  may  scribble  their  signatures  all 
over  your  faces,  but  the  heart  has  no  wrinkles.  It  is 
young  when  men  are  old  and  lives  after  their  death.  O, 
immortal  elixir  of  youth !  how  it  smiles  on  withered 
features !  How  it  endures  when  wealth  and  strength  and 
wisdom  all  pass  away.  0,  treasure  of  humanity !  that 
can  never  be  squandered,  though  banks  break  and  busi- 
ness fails,  though  hand  trembles  and  brain  weakens. 
Though  knowledge  is  a  shadow  and  philosophy  a  sham, 
the  root  is  strong — the  trunk  is  sound,  though  "The  flower 
fadeth." 

III.  Go,  then,  wealth,  like  the  grass,  and  the  pride  of 
knowledge  like  the  flower;  let  the  major  key  succeed 
the  minor,  silence  wailing  strings  amid  the  reverberations 


16  fiiE  Message  of  tME  new  Year. 

of  the  trumpet :  'TlioWord  of  our  God  shall  stand  forever." 
O  Israel,  slothful  Israel!  Thou  wast  the  guardian  of 
the  word.  The  Jewish  people  have  been,  indeed,  the 
trustees  of  civilization.  "Like  a  ghost,"  wrote  Heinrich 
Heine.  "Like  a  ghost  keeping  watch  over  a  treasure 
that  had  been  confided  to  it  during  life,  so  in  its  dark 
and  gloomy  ghettos  sat  this  murdered  nation,  this  spectre 
people,  guarding  the  Hebrew  Bible."  The  ghost  yet 
walks  the  earth.  Its  mission  is  not  yet  ended.  But  its 
first  duty  is  to  learn  its  own  truths,  is  to  practise  its  own 
precepts.  How  can  the  Jews  be  the  missionaries  of  the 
world,  when  they  themselves  so  sadly  need  attention  ? 

Do  away,  the  text  thunders  at  us,  do  away  with, 
abolish  and  destroy  the  fraudulent  weights  and  measures 
by  which  you  estimate  each  other,  and  measure  men  by 
the  yardstick  of  right-living.  What  are  you  doing  for 
your  fellowmen?  What  are  you  doing  for  your  religion  ? 
What  is  your  rating  on  the  books  of  God?  Oh,  if  men 
were  valued  according  to  their  personal  worth  and  not 
according  to  their  pecuniary  wortli,  what  a  revolution 
there  would  be  in  Bradstreet's  and  Dun's  commercial 
agencies!  The  rich  poor;  the  poor  rich;  millionaires, 
beggars  ;  and  tramps  and  peddlers,  our  new  Rothschilds 
and  Vanderbilts.  Have  you  ever  examined  yourself  as 
you  do  your  fellowmen?  Have  you  ever  condemned 
yourself  as  a  spendthrift  of  time  ?  Have  you  yet  laid  to 
heart  the  awful  fact  that  on  this  New  Year's  Day  you 
are,  every  one  of  you,  one  year  nearer  to  the  grave? 

I  ask  you  now  to  consider  this  appalling  truth.  There 
is  an  imperative  law.  It  is  the  law  of  God.  It  is  an 
eternal  law.  I  appeal  to  you,  weak  men  and  women, 
skating  on  the  thin  ice  of  life,  to  think  for  a  moment 
what  you  are  and  what  you  are  doing.  Have  you  a 
plan  in  life?  Have  you  a  fixed  purpose?  Have  you  an 
ideal?     When   tried   before  the  throne    of  the   Infinite 


THE  MESSAGE  OF  THE  NEW  YEAR.  17 

Mystery  of  the  ages,  do  you  merit  acquittal  or  conviction? 
O,  men  and  women,  my  brothers  and  sisters,  the  iron 
gates  are  closed  upon  the  past  and  it  is  unchangeable. 
But  a  new  year  is  opening  before  us  with  promise  and 
hope  and  boundless  opportunity.  Some  of  you  may 
never  see  another.  Some  of  you  may  long  with  bitter 
agony  for  the  past  to  return,  for  the  unchangeable  to  be 
changed,  for  your  lives  to  be  re-written.  You  can  now 
anticipate  that  awful  moment,  you  can  now  realize  the 
holiness  of  duty,  the  eternity  of  law.  That  though  the 
world  passeth  and  its  splendor  fades,  though  life  is  a 
fleeting  and  its  pains  linger  longer  than  its  pleasures, 
though  all  things  human  are  dissipated  into  ashes,  yet 
"The  word  of  our  God  shall  stand  forever." 

Many  have  passed  from  among  us  during  the  past  year. 
Many  familiar  faces  we  shall  never  see  again.  Many  a 
living  voice  has  died  into  silence.  Some  of  you  are 
bereaved,  are  heart-sore,  grieve  and  grieve  and  long  in 
vain  for  the  touch  of  a  vanished  hand,  for  the  love  of  a 
heart  that  has  mouldered  into  dust.  They  have  become 
to  us  only  a  memory.  A  memory  of  what?  Of  their 
wealth  and  luxury?  Oh,  the  smitten  soul  cares  but 
little  for  the  thought  of  such  paltry  baubles.  "The 
grass  withereth." 

Or  do  we  weep  for  the  dead  because  they  were  wise 
and  shrewd  and  knowing?  Oh,  what  a  desecration  of 
grief  is  the  bare  supposition !  Let  pride  perish.  "The 
flower  fadeth." 

But  lovingly  and  tearfully  we  remember  their  kindly 
acts,  their  tender  words,  their  unspeakable  beauty  of 
soul.  And  round  about  their  shadowy  heads  we  weave 
as  a  garland  of  eulogy  the  ancient  words  that  have 
entered  our  hearts,  and  will,  God  grant,  guide  our  lives  : 
"The  grass  withereth,  the  flower  fadeth,  but  the  word  of 
our  God  shall  stand  forever,"    Amen, 


SEEING  GOD. 


A   NEW   YEAR  S   SERMON   BY   RABBI   MAX    HELLER. 


A  child  is  leaning  against  his  mother's  knee.  He  looks 
into  the  calm,  faithful  eyes  and  a  solemn  hush  as  in  the 
presence  of  something  great  and  holy,  settles  upon  his 
eager,  inquiring  mind.  For  his  mother,  the  good,  earnest 
woman,  is  telling  him  about  the  mighty  God  high  in  the 
heavens  who  gives  to  young  and  old  very  beautiful  and 
pleasant  things,  for  w^hom  nothing  is  too  hard  to  bring 
about,  who  is  everywhere,  high  and  low,  and  who  sees 
everything,  the  dark  as  well  as  the  bright,  the  locked  and 
hidden  things,  as  well  as  the  free  and  open  ones.  "And 
does  God  see  me,  too?"  the  child  asks.  "Yes,  indeed," 
answers  the  mother.  "He  sees  you  and  he  watches  over 
you,  so  that  no  harm  can  come  to  you."  ''And  does  he 
see  me  when  it  is  dark,  too?"  continues  the  child.  "Yes, 
darling.  He  sees  you  in  your  little  bed  when  all  the 
lights  are  put  out,  for  no  darkness  can  keep  him  from 
seeing."  "But  will  He  see  me  when  I  am  way  down  in 
the  cellar,  or  when  I  go  far,  far  away,  can  he  then  see  me, 
too?"  "He  can  see  you,  child,  wherever  you  are;  for 
wherever  you  may  go,  there  He  is,  there  He  guards  you 
and  there  He  blesses  my  little  boy."  "Mother,  if  God  can 
see  me  all  the  time  and  in  every  place,  if  He  is  always 
around  me  Avherever  I  am,  why  don't  He  let  me  see  him  ? 
Mother,  why  can't  I  see  God,  too,  only  once,  if  He  sees  me 
all  the  time?" 

(18) 


SEEING  GOD.  19 

That  simple  question  of  the  child,  I  have  no  doubt 
that  numberless  little  ones  have  asked  it  and  that  number- 
less mothers  have  been  baffled  by  it.  For,  simple  as  it  is, 
it  is  not  a  mere  child's  question.  It  sounds  one  of  the 
deepest  notes  of  longing  that  vibrate  through  the  human 
heart ;  in  the  ambitious  dreams  of  the  young,  in  the  lofty 
flights  of  poetic  fancy,  in  the  endless  struggles  of  the  hero, 
in  the  burning  words  of  the  prophet,  in  every  soaring, 
high -aiming  life,  there  is  pulsating,  in  each  renewed  onset 
of  effort  and  inspiration,  that  noble  prayer  of  Moses : 
*'0  grant  me  that  I  might  see  Thy  glory  ! "  And  what 
the  child  expresses  as  a  mere  surprise,  what  all  the  great 
and  the  high-minded  follow  as  the  pole-star  that  guides 
their  wanderings,  it  eats  into  the  heart  of  the  feeble,  of  the 
lowly  and  of  the  unfortunate  as  a  gnawing  doubt,  when 
the  flame  of  faith,  once  pure  and  steadfast,  is  flickering 
dimly  amid  the  glooms  of  defeat  and  exhaustion- 
"Why  cannot  I  see  God,  if  indeed  He  sees  me  ?  "  This 
torturing  question  is  asked  not  only  in  the  hovel,  but  in 
palaces,  too,  not  only  on  the  bed  of  suff'ering,  but  often  on 
the  luxurious  couch,  "Why  cannot  I  see  the  proofs  that 
God  knows  of  my  life  and  of  my  pain,  if,  indeed.  He  sees 
me  as  I  am.  If  He  is  looking  on  here  now,  and  if  He 
knows  what  I  feel,  better  than  my  dearest  friend  can 
know,  why  then,  0  God  (to  use  the  language  of  the 
Psalmist),  wherefore,  O  Lord,  dost  Thou  stand  afar  off"? 
hidest  Thou  Thyself  in  times  of  distress  ?  " 

And  here,  this  morning  on  the  day  of  remembrance,  we 
ask  ourselves  with  all  these  thousands  of  wondering 
children,  of  aspiring  toilers,  of  stricken  sufferers  and 
exhausted  stragglers :  Cannot  we  see  God  ?  He  sees  us. 
He  can  be  mindful  of  us,  on  this  day  of  remembrance  as 
at  any  other  time  ;  but  if  we  are  to  remember  Him,  how 
can  we,  if  we  have  not  seen  Him  ?  Can  a  man  remember 
that  which  he  has  never  known?    Tell  us  first  how  we 


20  SEEING  GOD. 

can  see  Him,  then  it  will  be  possible  to  think  of  Him,  to 
remember  Him.  Let  us  go  back  to  our  text;  it  gave  us 
the  assurance  that  God  sees;  it  will  tell  us  also,  no  doubt, 
whether  God  is  seen.  "And  Abraham,  it  reads,  called 
the  name  of  the  place  God  sees,  as  it  is  said  to-day: 
On  the  mountain  the  Lord  is  seen." 

I  do  not  know,  if  I  should  have  understood  this 
passage  at  all,  I  do  not  know,  whether  I  might  not  have 
passed  it  without  any  particular  emotion,  had  I  not  had 
an  im2)ressive  and  memorable  explanation  of  it  this 
summer  when  I  was  given  a  respite  from  the  trials  and 
duties  of  my  sacred  office.  I  would  have  known  what 
the  word  mountain  stands  for  and  I  could  have  un- 
derstood the  statement  that  "on  the  mountain  the  Lord 
is  seen"  as  a  statement;  as  a  majestic,  profound  truth  I 
could  hardly  have  accepted  it.  For  I  had  scarcely  ever 
^een  a  mountain.  On  a  mountain  I  had  never  been. 
Now  our  text  makes  no  such  sweeping  assertion  as  it 
would  be  to  say,  that  only  on  the  mountain  the  I^ord 
is  seen  or  that  on  the  mountain  the  Lord  is  seen  best  or 
clearest;  it  calmly  says,  without  going  into  ecstatic 
superlatives:  On  the  mountain  the  Lord  is  seen.  The 
truth  is,  the  Lord  is  seen  everywhere,  and  what  the 
prophet  Isaiah  says  so  forcibly  to  King  Assa  (II  Chron. 
XV.,  2)  expresses  it  precisely. 

The  spectacles  w^ith  whose  aid  God  can  be  seen  are  of 
many  different  shapes  and  hues;  the  withered  leaf,  the 
common  pebble,  the  creeping  worm  as  well  as  sea  and 
land  and  field  and  forest,  all  may  be  windows  by  wdiich 
a  glimpse  can  be  caught  of  the  lordly  eye  and  the 
master  hand  of  an  exalted  and  incomprehensible  Spirit. 

Of  course,  people  differ  greatly  in  the  various  things 
that  appeal  most  directly  to  their  sense  of  wonder  and 
admiration ;  some  have  no  such  sense  whatever ;  they 
feel  their  own   importance,    the    vastness    of    their  ex- 


SEEtNG  GOb,  ^1 

perience  and  their  general  smartness  and  knowingness 
too  much  to  be  surprised,  not  to  say  amazed  at  the 
most  wonderful  things;  that,  they  think,  may  be  good 
enough  for  young  people,  who  haven't  seen  much;  they'll 
get  over  that,  too,  in  the  course  of  time.  But  I  am  not 
thinking  now  of  these  people  who  are  so  proud  of  the 
degree  to  which  the  digestion  of  their  senses  has  been 
spoiled;  but  of  such  only  who  have  to  plead  guilty  to 
the  possession  of  health  and  open  senses;  such  people 
can  learn  to  love  God  in  many  surroundings,  on  many 
widely  different  occasions,  they  can  draw  a  joyful  grati- 
tude for  this  beautiful  world,  from  man}^  sights  and 
experiences ;  but  I  doubt  not  that  the  greatness  and  the 
majesty  of  God  in  His  creation  can  be  seen  no  more 
impressively  anywhere  than  they  appear  from  those 
towering  "domes  that  lift  their  heads  into  the  sky,"  the 
mountains. 

As  for  me  and  my  own  limited  experience:  I  have 
seen  the  Eternal  on  the  sea  when  it  roared,  when  the 
vessel  was  lifted  to  the  dizzy  top  of  the  wave  only  to  be 
swept  down  again  into  raging  abysses,  when  far  and  near, 
under  the  frowning  sky,  the  mighty  waters  everywhere 
were  lashed  into  seething  fury ;  I  have  seen  the  Eternal 
in  the  peace  of  the  golden  fields,  when  the  bended  ears 
were  like  waving  banners  in  the  breeze,  when  in  the  calm 
of  the  ending  day  the  sun  went  down,  a  glowing  ball, 
amid  a  blazing  glory  of  fiery  cloud-shapes ;  I  have  seen 
the  Eternal  in  the  tiny  insect  with  its  glistening  wdng  and 
its  little  limbs ;  He  appeared  unto  me  in  the  thousand 
beauteous  forms  of  flower  and  tree,  of  rock  and  ruby ; 
but  never  did  the  entire  grandeur  of  His  creation  so  burst 
upon  my  eyes,  nay  upon  every  sense  that  could  open  to 
the  scene,  as  when  I  stood  for  the  first  time  to  look  upon 
the  abodes  of  men  from  one  of  the  high  places  of  the 
earth.     It  stretched    before  my  vision    for  miles   upon 


^2  SEEING   GOi). 

miles,  a  carpet  of  green  in  all  shades ;  here  the  dark 
iurerit,  there  the  fresh  meadow,  yonder  the  waving  field ; 
to  the  right  a  placid  lake  like  an  eye  looking  into  the 
heavens ;  before  me,  though  miles  away,  the  river  like  a 
band  of  steel  stretching  from  one  end  of  the  horizon  to 
the  other.  Into  this  carpet,  save  where  nature  made  a 
way  for  the  water-courses,  man  had  wrought  irregular 
designs  by  marking  field  from  field  in  figures  of  all  sizes, 
by  streaking  the  plain  with  his  roads  and  dotting  it  with 
his  houses.  But  how  small  he  was,  the  Lord  of  Creation 
who  ploughed  these  fields,  where  he  had  hewn  down 
forests,  who  made  his  paths  unto  the  mountain  and  rode 
in  his  little  craft  upon  the  winding  stream ;  tiny  ant  that 
toiled  and  struggled  down  below,  the  naked  eye  could 
not  see  him ;  and  were  it  not  that  houses  and  fields 
spoke  of  his  work,  of  him  nothing  could  be  discerned. 
And  w^iat  was  he  indeed  compared  to  all  the  vastness 
around  him,  what  was  he  compared  to  the  tempest  that 
raged  in  yonder  corner,  or  to  the  cloud  that  drifted  over 
another,  what  was  he  to  the  blue-veiled  hills  in  the  dis- 
tance or  to  the  rainbow  that  spanned  the  entire  glorious 
landscape.  And  thus  like  myself,  thousands  upon 
thousands  had  stood  upon  that  entrancing  spot ;  with  a 
cry  of  admiration  they  beheld  it  at  the  first  and  with 
beating  hearts,  awed  and  fascinated,  they  looked  on  and 
on.  How  they  came  away,  with  what  feelings,  whether 
they  soon  forgot  or  whether  they  enshrined  the  hour  in 
their  memories,  w^ho  can  tell  ?  but  while  some,  it  is  true, 
stood  there  cold  and  examining,  to  by  far  the  most  there 
was  revealed  in  those  moments  a  particle,  precious,  if 
small,  but  a  radiant  and  unforgetable  particle  of  the  glor}^ 
of  God. 

And  thus  on  the  mountain  the  Lord  is  seen  ;  imagine  at 
its  foot  one  of  those  restless  human  bee-hives,  where  the 
shouting  and  the  hurrying,  the  whistling  from  factory  and 


SEEING  GOD.  23 

steamer,  the  clattering  of  hoofs  and  the  rattling  of  wheels 
over  the  imvenient  do  not  cease  for  a  moment,  what  would 
you  hear  of  all  this  on  these  silent  heights  ?  Hardly  the 
faintest  sound.  As  Mttle  as  the  smoke  of  the  countless 
stacks  of  a  busy  metropolis  could  befoul  the  pure  air  of 
the  summit,  so  little  can  the  paltry  noises  of  a  man  dis- 
turb the  dignified  peace  of  God's  rock-rooted  towers.  No 
hurry,  no  confusion  is  here  to  disturb;  in  that  vast 
prospect  God  is  seen  reigning  alone  and  man  must 
dwindle  to  himself  into  absolute  nothingness. 

"On  the  mountain  the  Lord  is  seen."  The  soul  has  its 
mountains,  as  the  earth  has ;  but  it  reaches  them  not  with 
clumsy  feet  or  on  creeping  conveyances;  the  wings  of 
thought,  of  impulse,  of  inspiration  lift  it  with  swift  or 
with  measured  flight  to  higher  and  higher  pinnacles  of 
manhood  and  ripeness.  Now  some  can  never  rise  to  the  \ 
summit;  their  paths  do  not  lead  upwards  or  not  high 
enough ;  they  find  some  orchard  in  the  valley  with  tempt- 
ing fruits  or  they  stretch  their  limbs  in  some  cool,  shady 
grove ;  or  they  even  follow  some  dancing  brook  down  and 
down  till  it  dashes  itself  against  the  stone  in  some  dark 
grotto ;  their  soul  is  not  strong  enough  to  look  up  and 
toil  up  the  steep  mountain-side,  and  thus  they  remain  in 
the  shadow,  they  see  less  and  less  as  the  years  go  on  and 
lose  forever  the  grand  revelations  which  await  the  others 
on  the  mountain. 

Meanwhile  the  stronger  soul,  filled  with  happy  antici- 
pations of  the  scene  at  the  summit,  mounts  undaunted 
along  the  winding  path.  The  thinker  and  observer  stores 
his  mmd  with  truths  and  experiences  so  that  his  eye  be- 
comes clearer  and  catches  glimpses  of  the  view  through 
the  trees  and  shrubbery  of  daily  work  and  daily  pleasure ; 
at  first,  indeed,  he  has  to  look  down  upon  the  path  lest  he 
should  lose  it  and  go  astray ;  he  must  note  the  trees,  where 
overhanging  branches  threaten  his  eyes  or  fallen  trunks 


24  SfeEtNG  GOD. 

arc  1>:ining  the  way ;  lie  cannot  see  God  yet,  while  he  is 
striving  and  lighting  to  keep  the  path;  he  cannot  walk 
erect,  his  eye  is  on  the  ground  ;  thus  it  is  with  you,  busy, 
restless  men  whose  thoughts  are  filled  with  business,  with 
the  ebbs  and  tides  of  the  market,  with  the  chances  of  new 
openings,  with  the  hopes  of  j^rofit  and  the  risks  of  loss  ;  no 
one  will  blame  you  ;  it  is  your  ambition  for  yourselves 
and  your  families;  but  in  all  this  toil  and  bustle  and 
weariness  you  cannot  see  God ;  the  woods  of  care  and 
worry  are  too  thick  about  you  ;  the  underbrush  threatens 
to  entangle  your  feet  and  it  is  slow  work  rising  higher  on 
the  mountain  of  humanity  though  it  may  be  a  rapid 
enough  rate  for  growing  rich.  The  experience  and  train- 
ing which  one  will  gain  in  this  contest  and  in  this 
progress  is  not  the  kind  which  lifts  the  soul  to  greater 
heights  ;  it  sharpens  ones  slirewdness,  it  gives  a  knowledge 
of  men  and  of  means  lor  obtaining  ends  ;  but  it  rarely 
widens  the  glance  or  elevates  the  soul.  It  is  a  different 
kind  of  experience  that  leads  to  the  wide  outlook,  to  lofty 
standpoints  and  to  the  beholding  of  God ;  the  searching 
trial  of  a  sorrow  manfully  borne,  of  an  affliction  bravely 
met ;  or  the  throbbing  sympathy  that  looks  affectionately 
into  many  lives  and  many  hearts,  the  wondering  thought 
of  the  strangeness  of  providential  happenings,  all  these 
bring  nearer  to  the  sunnnit  and  to  God. 

And  then  after  years  and  years,  when  you  stand  on  the 
summit  of  rich  experience,  when  you  have  seen  and 
studied  life  in  every  form,  under  every  chance,  when  your 
eye  is  no  more  fascinated  with  the  spinning  of  wheels  and 
your  ear  buzzes  no  more  with  the  hum  and  rumbling, 
when  you  can  look  calmly  upon  the  whole,  then  you  see 
God  in  every  smallest  portion  of  the  entire  vast 
machinery ;  when  on  your  heights  of  ripened  thought  you 
hear  no  confused  noises  but  only  the  sweet  glad  harmony 
which  they  form,  then,  on  the  mountain  is  God  seen  by  you. 


SftEtNG  GOt).  25 

^ 'On  the  mountain  God  is  seen;"  on  other  mountains 
also  besides  that  of  the  instructed,  broadened,  ripened 
mind.  From  selfishness  and  smallness,  from  envying  and 
coveting,  from  weakness  and  unruly  passions,  up  to  a  gen- 
erous, self-respecting,  dauntless  manhood,  that  is  a  climb 
too,  and  at  the  end  of  the  climbing  there  also  the  view 
opens  grandly  upon  the  wonders  of  creation.  You  think 
you  ought  to  see  and  understand  God  while  you  are  wading 
to  the  knee  in  mud  and  foulness ;  as  well  might  you  be 
allowed  to  enter  the  king's  ante-chamber,  while  you  are 
reeUng  drowsily  in  a  fit  of  drunkenness.  Why,  if  one  of 
your  nobler  fellow  beings,  the  pure  and  upright  man,  was 
to  present  himself  to  your  observation,  you  would  not  be 
able  to  see  or  understand  his  nobleness,  mortal  though  he 
be  like  yourself.  And  do  you  then  expect,  in  your  slimy 
depths,  with  fogs  and  shadows  hovering  over  you,  to  see  j 
God  in  His  greatness  and  perfection  ?  The  God-like  alone''?^ 
can  see  God.  But  climb  ahead  over  many  a  stone  of 
hardship,  walk  firmly  on  many  a  slippery  path,  cling  ob- 
stinately to  the  narrow  trail,  hold  yourself  erect  by  your 
staff  of  virtue,  and  as  you  travel  on,  the  sweet  air  of  the 
pure  heights  will  fill  your  lungs,  your  breath  will  come 
freer  and  easier,  with  a  quiet,  unspeakable  happiness  3'ou 
will  feel  that  you  have  been  a  conqueror  and  that  the  rest 
on  the  summit  with  the  wide  expanse  before  you  will  be 
the  sweeter  and  the  more  enjoyable.  Fight  out  your  w^ay 
to  an  honest,  fearless,  rounded  manhood,  raise  yourself 
nearer  to  God  and  to  His  heavens— on  the  mountain  of 
the  strong,  brave  life,  on  that  mountain  also  God  is  seen. 
'•Seek  ye  the  Lord  where  He  can  be  found,  call  Him 
where  he  is  near."  Draw  near  to  him  in  your  deeds, 
He  will  be  near  to  you  in  your  heart. 

Thus,  as  you  may  conclude  from  what  has  been  said, 
the  mountain  of  old  age  ought  to  bring  us  nearer  to  God, 
as  the  declining  days  bring  the  aged  man  and  the  aged 


26  Seeing  goD. 

woman  ever  nearer  to  eternity.  They  stand  there,  on 
the  summit  of  their  many  years ;  stand  there  alone  and 
more  and  more  deserted,  as  one  friend  of  their  youth 
after  another  leaves  before  them.  Down  in  the  valley  of 
their  youth  everything  looks  so  bright  and  sun-lit  and 
yet  so  small ;  around  them,  on  the  lonely  mountain -to}^  of 
age  all  is  so  calm,  the  passions  are  silent,  life  flows  along 
slowly  and  without  excitement.  Happy  they,  if  they  find 
the  summit  clear  and  the  air  mild  and  pleasant ;  woe  unto 
them  if  they  can  only  see  fogs  and  shadows  in  the  valley 
and  feel  only  mists  and  chilling  winds  on  the  heights ; 
but  if  they  can  glance  with  a  clear  eye  upon  the  valley 
beneath  them,  then  on  the  mountain  God  is  seen ;  and 
then  they  can  say  to  themselves  with  the  psalmist, 
'Though  father  and  mother  have  deserted  me,  yet  the 
Lord  will  gather  me  in." 

And  this  holiday,  the  land-mark  between  two  years,  is 
it  not  a  mountain,  too,  on  which  God  is  seen  ?  A  moun- 
tain with  a  backward  view,  all  clear  and  sharply  outlined 
and  with  a  forward  view  from  which  the  mists  are  lifting 
slowly  as  the  winds  of  time  drift  them  up  the  mountain- 
side. On  this  mountain,  as  we  stand  on  it  to-day,  we 
should  see  God  and  remember  Him ;  we  should  remember 
Him  in  gratitude  as  we  look  back  and  see  his  kindly  hand 
in  every  day  of  the  year  that  is  gone ;  we  should  think  of 
Him  in  awe  and  silent  adoration  as  we  look  forward  up- 
on the  veiled  destinies  of  the  year  that  lies  before  us. 
But  if  we  can  realize  how  we  are  here  together,  lifted  into 
a  realm  of  silence  and  peace  above  the  confusion  of  every- 
day life,  if  we  can  shut  out  the  noise  of  the  valley,  its 
fumes  and  noxious  gasses,  we  ought  to  draw  deep  breaths 
of  reverence  and  of  manly  strength  on  these  heights ;  it 
ought  not  to  be  a  mere  visit  or  excursion,  but  an  invigor- 
ating change  of  climate  that  widens  our  charity  and 
deepens  our  faith.     And  while  we  are  on  the  mountain  of 


SEEING  GOD. 


2? 


this  solemn  season  we  ought  to  listen  reverently  and  with 
sacred  thoughts  to  those  lar-olf  mysterious  sounds  of  the 
ram's  horn.  Think  of  the  mountains  and  hills  on  which 
this  venerable  shepherd's  music  resounded;  think  of  the 
seers  and  sages,  of  the  kings  and  law-givers  of  Israel,  of 
Jacob  and  David,  of  Moses  and  Amos  as  they  sat  alone 
among  their  herds,  looking  now  upon  the  grazing  animals, 
now  into  the  starry  sky ;  think  how  the  simple  music  of 
this  horn  resounded  through  Palestine's  hills  and  plains 
all  these  thousands  of  years  ago.  And  now  the  ancient 
sound  will  vibrate  again  through  the  air  admonishing  us 
to  remember!  How  many  memories  it  brings  of  great 
men  and  holy  deeds !  And  better  your  lives,  that  is  the 
burden  of  its  mysterious  song. 

Mother,  if  God  can  see  me  everywhere  and  at  all  times, 
why  cannot  I  see  God !  oh,  how  I  should  love  to  see  God ! 
thus  asks  the  child,  thus  prays  the  man.  We  have  dis- 
covered the  answer  here  in  our  text ;  it  reads  "on  the 
mountain  the  Lord  is  seen,"  and  it  speaks  to  us  and  it 
tells  us :  art  thou  clambering  up  breathlessly,  with 
hardly  a  rest  on  the  little  mossbank,  art  thou  only  pluck- 
ing here  a  fern,  there  a  berry,  there  a  flower,  but  yet 
striving  onward  and  upward  ;  though  thou  mayest  bruise 
thyself  against  the  thorn  and  strike  thy  knee  against  the 
rock,  though  thou  art  panting  and  hot  and  weary ;  if  thou 
seest  nought  but  the  rocks  and  pines  about  thee,  the  road 
is  leading  thee  on  to  the  summit  without  fail;  and 
through  all  the  toilsome  climbing  thou  canst  never  see 
the  goal  of  thy  journey  and  the  rewards  of  thy  persist- 
ence until  the  end  and  the  rest,  yet  on  the  mountain  shalt 
thou  see  God ;  and  if  thy  last  dying  breath,  if  the  last  beat- 
ing of  thy  heart  be  the  step  that  lifts  thee  over  the  precipice 
up  to  the  free  view  of  the  top  :  on  the  mountain  of  death 
surely,  God  is  seen.  And  after  my  skin  is  cut  to  pieces 
this  will  be  and  freed  from  my  body  shall  I  behold  God. 


5S  SEEING    GOi). 

And  do  you  ask  me  how  you  should  remember  this 
great  truth  on  the  New  Year  ?  By  a  humble  thoughtful- 
ness  and  by  abidmg  resolves.  Let  "your  righteousness  be 
like  the  mountains  of  God  and  your  acts  of  justice  like  the 
great  deep."  There  have  been  men  in  history  such  as 
our  Moses  and  our  George  Washington  whose  entire  life 
is  one  majestic  mountain-scene ;  men  whose  skirts  were 
never  soiled  with  the  mud  of  vulgar  desire  or  petty  spite  ; 
men  who  lived  in  the  clear  air  of  noble  aims  and  lofty 
thoughts ;  men,  who  could  truthfully  pray :  "Lord,  by 
Thy  favor  hast  Thou  caused  my  mountain  to  stand  in 
strength" ;  mountains  like  these,  it  is  true,  are  not  often 
to  be  found  ;  neither  are  the  Mount  Everests  or  INIont 
Blancs  so  common ;  but  as  they  are  outlined  against  the 
sky  for  miles  and  miles  they  beckon  to  us  ;  to  the  noble- 
minded  such  lives  have  a  fascination ;  we  turn  to  the  story 
of  their  deeds,  we  climb  up  with  them  and  as  we  are 
borne  up  on  their  strong  shoulders  we  feel  ourselves 
nearer  and  nearer  to  God.  Who,  then,  would  live  other- 
wise than  nobly  ?  By  these  examples,  as  God  has  placed 
them  conspicuously  upon  the  undulating  plains  of 
history,  let  our  ambitions  and  our  conduct  be  guided ; 
and  while  we  pray  unto  the  Eternal  for  all  His  blessings 
of  the  outer  life,  let  us  not  forget  this  wiser  prayer  also, 
"A  pure  heart  create  unto  me,  0  Lord,  and  a  firm  spirit  do 
Thou  establish  within  me."    Amen. 


OUR   REFUGE. 


BY   REV.    DR.   GUSTAV   GOTTHEIL. 


Amidst  the  many  and  often  conflicting  feelings  which 
this  day  awakens,  it  is  a  relief  to  find  a  word  that  offers  a 
resting  place  for  our  restless  thoughts.  Such  a  word  is 
that  of  the  psalmist :  Tiny  TT*!  "In  Thy  hand,  0  God, 
are  my  times." 

I. 

"My  times,"  that  is:  the  good  and  the  evil.  Our  life 
on  earth  does  not  flow  in  an  even  course ;  like  a  river  it 
passes  now  through  green  meadows,  now  through  dreary 
wastes,  and  now  amidst  rocks,  where  the  shadows  of  night 
cast  a  dark  veil  over  its  face.  Only  the  foolhardy  trust  in 
the  constancy  of  earthly  things.  If  nothing  else  changes, 
we  do ;  the  passing  years  deepen  the  furrows,  not  only  on 
our  faces,  but  on  our  minds  too.  It  is  neither  pleasant 
nor  reassuring  to  remember  this,  but  it  is  wholesome 
nevertheless.  For  whilst  a  general  should  go  to  battle 
with  the  feeling  that  he  will  surely  conquer,  he  still  must 
prepare  for  defeat  and  keep  his  lines  of  retreat  open.  So 
must  we  go  to  the  fields  where  we  have  to  encounter  times 
and  conditions  with  a  strong  hope  of  victory,  yet  not  burn 
our  bridges  behind  us,  for  some  day  we  shall  surely  suffer 
defeat.  In  the  recent  storm  houses  were  swept  away 
which  the  owners  thought  were  beyond  the  reach  of  the 
waves.  How  glad  they  were  to  find  a  shelter  near, 
whither  they  could  flee  for  safety  I    Who  can  tell  when 

(39) 


30  OUR   REFUGE. 

his  own  habitation  shall  be  invaded  or  overturned? 
Knowing  this,  what  refuge  have  we  prepared  for  our 
hearts  ?  Oh,  it  is  pitiful  to  see  people  in  affliction,  with  no 
spiritual  resource  to  sustain  them — no  God  near  to  look 
up  to,  no  prayer  possible  to  relieve  the  oppressed  bosom, 
no  ray  of  hope  shining  into  the  gloom,  nor  any  idea  pres- 
^ent  of  the  wider  uses  of  adversity.  Only  the  stroke  is  felt 
and  not  the  hand  that  dealt  it.  All  went  so  well  with 
them  that  in  the  pride  of  their  hearts  they  said  to  God : 
Be  thou  far  from  me ! 

Religion,  they  say,  is  only  custom.  I  might  agree  with 
this  if  the  "  only  "  were  left  out. ,  Customs  are  the  flowers 
of  civilization.  You  can  tell  a  man's  education,  yea,  even 
much  of  his  character,  by  his  habits.  Morality,  ethics, 
Sittlichkeit,  are  words  derived  from  roots  denoting  that 
which  is  acknowledged  and  adopted  by  the  people  as 
right  and  proper.  There  are  foolish  customs,  many  and 
not  far  between  ;  but  these  apart^ianners  ^and  usages 
are  the  silent  compact,  the  unwritten  law  which  preserve 
the  proprieties  of  civilized  society.  So  piety  is  the  fruit 
of  religious  customs.  What  gives  this  day  its  sanctity 
with  that  numerous  class,  who  hardly  share  any  of  the 
beliefs  on  which  it  is  founded,  but  the  impressions  of  their 
younger  days?  Religion  will  not  come  to  our  aid  the 
moment  we  call  for  her ;  she  must  be  loved  and  cherished 
at  all  times  if  she  is  to  prove  our  true  friend  in  need.' 
Much  of  the  present  indifference  of  our  young  people  is 
directly  traceable  to  the  absence  of  all  religious  observ- 
ances in  their  homes.  A  prayer  taught  by  a  devout 
mother  is  worth  all  the  liturgies  of  the  Temple.  A  Sab- 
bath or  Festival  coming  to  a  family  with  something  better 
than  an  extra  good  dinner  but  bringing  devoutness  and 
especially  charity  with  it  (as  the  good  old  Jewish  custom 
prescribes),  will  leave  a  more  lasting  impression  on  the 
heart  than  the  most  eloquent  sermons.    And  so  with  all- 


OUR   REFUGE.  31 

religious  truths.  /  ■  Remember,  0  parents,  the  future  of 
your  children ;  do  what  you  may,  leave  them  as  large  a 
fortune  as  you  can,  and  give  them  the  best  of  mental  edu- 
cation, you  cannot  change  the  course  of  "  times,"  your 
love  must  dictate  to  you  the  duty  of  implanting  in  them 
a  real  faith  in  the  fact  that  those  "  times  "  are  all  in  God's 
hand. 


But  is  this  so  in  reality  ?  Or  is  that  idea  merely  an 
invention  of  the  inventors  of  religion  ?     Let  us  see. 

One  thing  is  certain:  the  reign  of  Law  is  absolute; 
there  is  no  escape  from  it ;  to  be  is  to  be  in  its  power.  If 
its  rule  is  friendly  to  us  we  prosper  ;  if  hostile,  we  perish. 
That  lead  is  heavy  is  good  for  us,  so  long  as  we  need 
weight,  but  when  it  falls  upon  us  that  very  quality  makes 
our  death.  Electric  discharges  purify  the  air,  then  they 
are  gracious  to  us ;  lightning  strikes  us  and  electricity 
becomes  our  ruin.  Or,  as  Plato  states  the  fact :  If  there 
is  love  between  the  forces  of  nature  and  ourselves  we  are 
happy  ;  if  hatred,  we  succumb  and  they  triumph. 

"  Denn  die  Elemente  hassen  das  Gebild  der  Menschen- 
hand." 

We  can  rule  over  nature  only  by  obedience  to  her  in- 
flexible will,  and  wisdom  consists  in  the  fullest  recogni- 
tion of  that  eternal  fact  and  the  avoidance  of  challenging 
her  to  the  unequal  contest.  And  she  sends  into  the  field 
her  auxiliaries  from  the  most  unexpected  quarters.  A 
single  hour  may  change  the  world  for  us  from  a  beautiful 
I)lace  to  live  in,  into  a  hateful  scene  of  woe  and  a  very 
valley  of  tears. 

Now  the  question  arises  :  How  are  we  to  regard  this 
inexorable  condition  of  our  existence  ?  But  two  answers 
can  be  given.  These  laws  of  nature  are  either  purposeless 
md  unreasonable  or  designed  for  a  purpose  in  accordance 


32  OUR   REFUGE. 

with  eternal  reason.  There  is  no  middle  course  open  for 
us.  Which,  then,  shall  we  choose?  If  we  accept  the 
former  alternative,  how  comes  it  that  I  have  reason 
enough  to  recognize  its  absence  from  the  laws  of  nature, 
and  that  my  whole  being  revolts  against  her  blind 
tyranny  ?  How  is  it  that  I,  who  did  not  make  those  laws, 
can  yet,  within  a  certain  circle,  play  with  them  at  will  ? 
Can  say  to  steam,  be  my  horse ;  to  lightning,  carry  my 
messages ;  and  to  water,  turn  my  wheel  ?  In  the  midst 
of  this  incessant  whirl  of  blind  forces  that  shall  one  day 
engulf  him  stands  man,  protesting  and  protesting,  yet  all 
in  vain !  How  came  he  here  with  his  reason,  his  heart, 
his  hope  reaching  beyond  the  world  of  "  times,"  with  his 
love  "stronger  than  death"?  Whence  his  thirst  for 
knowledge,  his  joy  in  finding  truth,  his  gladness  in  doing 
good  to  others ;  above  all,  with  that  mysterious  voice  that 
tells  him :  This  thou  shalt  do  and  that  thou  shalt  leave 
undone?  What  is  it  that  drives  men  and  women  to  pest-j 
breeding  houses  and  the  more  loathsome  scenes  in  the'' 
haunts  of  vice,  so  that  by  their  purity  and  self-sacrifice 
they  may  save  one  single  soul  ?  If  this  world  is  indeed 
but  a  soulless  mechanism  and  no  trace  of  a  God  to  be 
found  anywhere  in  all  its  immensities,  then  man  is  God ; 
but,  alas,  not  an  omnipotent,  but  an  impotent  one.  Woe 
to  him  that  he  should  feel  and  think  godlike,  yet  be  at 
the  mercy  of  a  stone,  an  insect,  a  microbe.  Then  reason 
is  a  curse  and  the  tenderly-feeling  heart  a  calamity.  But 
all  is  changed  the  moment  we  say  to  our  soul :  Be  still, 
my  times  are  in  God's  hands.  Then  you  see  the  source 
whence  our  own  soul-life  flowed.  Over  the  dark  horizon 
breaks  the  central  sun  that  illumines  the  world  and 
brings  light  and  rest  to  our  own  mind.  Without  that 
light  our  superior  nature  only  confounds  and  bewilders 
us ;  with  it  we  shall  be  able  to  feel  after  the  poet,  when 
he  sings  ; 


OUR    REFUGE.  33 

Know  well,  my  soul,  God's  hand  controls 

Whate'er  thou  fearest. 
Round  Him  in  calmest  music  rolls 

"Whate'er  thou  hearest, 
What  to  thee  is  shadow,  to  Him  is  day, 

And  the  end  He  knovveth  ; 
And  not  on  a  blind  and  aimless  way 

The  spirit  goeth. 
Leaning  on  Him,  make  with  reverent  meekness 

His  own  thy  will, 
And  with  strength  from  Him  thy  utter  weakness 

Life's  task  fulfil. 

Here  is  the  true  philosophy  of  "trust  in  God,"  and  is 
there  a  sweeter  and  more  heroic  feeling  in  the  human 
breast  than  this  ?  Let  the  scoffers  scoff,  let  the  doubters 
doubt,  let  the  haughty  boast — those  who  hold  to  that 
redeeming  faith  have  surely  chosen  the  best  part.  No 
better  prayer  can  I  offer  for  you  at  the  beginning  of  the 
new  year  than  this.  May  you  be  blessed  with  that 
strength  that  shall  enable  you  to  say,  amidst  all  the 
chances  and  changes  of  life,  "My  times  are  in  God's 
hands." 


Need  I  guard  myself  against  the  mistaking  of  my  words, 
that  this  surrender  of  our  "times"  into  God's  hands 
should  not  take  them  entirely  out  of  our  own  ?  I  mean, 
that  we  might  fold  them  and  let  God  do  all  for  us  ?  That 
it  is  enough  and  seemly  for  us  beggarlike,  to  open  our 
hands  toward  heaven  and  wait  for  His  alms  ?  No  sane 
mind  ever  so  understood  trust  in  God.  The  grandeur  of 
human  life  lies  just  in  this  combination  of  the  two 
factors — ^human  energy  and  initiative  and  the  inexorable 
fate  under  which  he  plies  his  hands  and  his  brain. 
Hence  man's  joy  in  his  successes  and  hence  also  the 
tragedies  of  his  failures.  He  confronts  the  universe  with 
its  tremendous  forces  and  awful  indifference  as  to  resultsj 


34  OUR   REFUGE. 

and  fights  them  all  so  that  he  may  maintain  his  foothold 
in  it  and  make  it  beautiful  and  strong  and  safe.  And 
whether  he  conquer  or  be  conquered  the  reward  of  his 
brave  struggle  can  never  be  snatched  from  him.  Here 
again  he  rises  superior  to  fate  and  the  blind  tyranny  of 
natural  laws.  His  soul  holds  the  sweetest  fruits  of  his 
endeavors,  and  nothing  can  annul  his  rights  to  them. 
The  soul  can  only  be  disappointed  by  its  own  faults,  its 
own  false  and  baseless  hopes.  Duties  faithfully  done  are 
always  faithful  in  the  fulfilment  of  their  promises  ;  only 
we  must  know  how  far  they  reach  and  wherein  they 
consist.  Trust  in  God  is  no  narcotic  to  lull  our  senses  to 
sleep  ;  it  is,  rightly  understood,  a  healthful  stimulant  that 
energizes  all  our  faculties.  Our  own  activity  is  a  vital 
factor  in  God's  providence,  and  in  His  order  their  is  no 
substitution,  no  voting  by  proxy,  no  casting  of  burdens 
,  upon  other  shoulders  !  You  cannot  be  made  contented  by 
God  if  you  make  yourselves  dissatisfied  with  yourselves, 
nor  can  you  ever  have  a  happy  home  if  you  sow  and 
nourish  the  seeds  of  unhappiness.  He  cannot,  with  all 
His  infinite  mercy  and  forgiveness,  blot  out  the  memory 
of  our  sins  if  we  do  not  substitute  for  them  the  sweet 
memories  of  virtue,  justice  and  kindness.  If  we  make 
gold  our  god,  He  will  let  us  do  so,  but  gold  will  be  our 
tormentor,  and  we  his  miserable  slaves.  He  cannot  make 
us  respected  and  beloved  by  others  if  we  ruthlessly 
wound  their  hearts  with  the  sharpness  of  our  tongues  or 
behave  meanly  toward  them.  All  this  seems  so  very 
plain  that  I  fear  you  are  growing  impatient  with  my 
speech ;  but  it  is  the  plainest  things  that  oftener  reach 
highest  and  are,  therefore,  of  far  greater  practical  value 
than  those  for  which  we  climb  high,  sometimes  only  to 
find  out  how  much  better  it  would  have  been  for  us  had 
we  remained  nearer  the  earth.  When  you  are  vexed  or 
injured  by  men  do  not  always  brood  over  the  wrong  you 


OUR   REFUGE.  35 

suffer,  but  try  to  find  out  how  much  of  it  is  your  own 
fault;  whether  you  have  not  provoked  it  and  positively 
misled  your  offender  into  his  wrong-doing.  Just  try  this 
the  very  next  time  you  are  angry  at  a  brother,  and  I  am 
confident  you  will  not  let  the  sun  go  down  over  your 
anger ;  nay,  you  will  rather  feel  as  though  you  had  to  go 
to  him  and  say,  "  Forgive  me,"  than  to  exact  a  confession 
of  sin  from  him. 

Happy  the  man  in  whom  God-trust  and  self-trust  are 
rightly  balanced  and  who  fives  in  the  blessedness  of  that 
faith  that  said  in  peaceful  joy,  "My  times  are  in  God's 
hands." 


RELIGION'S   CALL. 


BY  SAMUEL  SCHULMAN,   RABBI  CONG.  BNAI  JEHUDAH, 
KANSAS  CITY,    MO. 


Text:  Jeremiah  vi.,  16.  "Stand  ye  in  the  ways  and  see,  and  ask 
after  the  ancient  path,  where  is  the  way  which  is  good,  and 
walk  therein  ;  and  find  rest  for  your  soul." 

All  religious  observances  and  institutions  are  creations 
of  the  human  soul.  They  have  been  called  into  being  be- 
cause there  was  a  deeply  felt  need  for  them  which 
struggled  through  dim  feeling  and  found  expression  in 
the  clear  thought,  the  powerful  word  or  striking  symbol. 
I  have  no  sympathy  with  that  spurious  rationalism  which 
with  its  cheap  wit  is  ever  ready  to  tell  us  that  our 
divisions  of  time  are  merely  conventional,  and  hence,  they 
would  argue,  have  no  significance;  that  our  festivals  are 
matters  of  indifference  to  the  prolific  source  of  life ;  that 
our  religious  beliefs  are  but  idle  projects  of  our  own  brain. 
These  critics,  who  pride  themselves  upon  their  reason,  are 
flippant,  but  not  I'ational.  They  overlook  the  facts,  the 
experiences  of  the  soul,  the  depths  of  man's  nature,  from 
which  prayer  and  festal  day  naturally  emerge.  The  sages 
in  the  Talmud  showed  a  deeper  insight  and  truer  wisdom 
when  they  said  :  "The  court  of  justice  is  not  opened  in 
heaven  before  the  court  of  justice  on  earth  has  sanctified 
the  new  month.  "  What  a  profound,  critical  and  beautiful 
remark.  In  a  flash  of  intuition  they  revealed  the  bridge 
which  unites  earth  and  heaven.  They  anticipated  these 
critics  by  voicing  their  belief  in  the  humanness  of  all  re- 
ligious institutions.    At  the  same  time  they  asserted  the 

(36) 


religion's  call.  37 

validity  of  all  religious  beliefs  in  so  far  as  they  correspond 
to  and  body  forth  the  essential  facts  of  human  experience. 
They  intimated  to  us  that  we  only  speak  in  materiarl 
language  of  a  court  in  heaven,  because  there  exists  already 
a  judgment  seat  in  our  own  soul.  And  we  testify  to  this 
fact  by  emphatically  bringing  it  home  to  our  minds  with 
the  help  of  the  institution  of  sacred  days  and  solemn 
moments  of  reflection. 

And  so  for  us  to-night  a  new  year  begins  because 
our  soul  wants  it  so.  Emerson  sa3^s  :  "Our  faith  comes  in 
moments;  our  vice  is  habitual."  Such  a  moment  is  this 
to-night  when  standing  at  the  parting  of  ways,  taking 
leave  of  the  old  year  with  its  fall  harvest  of  joys  and 
sorrows,  of  success  and  failure,  of  possible  spiritual 
triumphs,  perhaps  of  moral  defeat  and  degradation,  we 
stand  anxious,  looking  toward  the  future,  seeking  to  pene- 
trate beyond  its  veil.  It  is  a  moment  exalted  by  the 
centuries  of  history  in  which  Israel,  our  spiritual  mother, 
used  it  to  turn  to  her  Maker.  It  is  endeared  and  trans- 
figured for  us  by  the  memory  of  loving  parents  who 
clasped  us  to  their  hearts  and  gave  us  their  blessings ;  it  is 
a  moment  made  holy  for  each  one  of  us  by  its  recall  of  the 
high  water  marks  in  our  own  past  life.  The  inspiration  of 
Israel's  historic  career,  the  love  of  that  which  is  most 
touching  to  the  human  heart  and  the  consciousness  of 
that  which  is  divinest  in  ourselves  unite  and  concentrate 
themselves  on  a  New  Year's  eve,  and  by  the  voice  of 
religion  proclaim  to  us  its  solemn  message.  This  voice 
may  be  considered  in  the  words  of  Jeremiah  to  have  a 
three-fold  purpose.  This  prophet,  who  in  many  phases 
of  his  ministry  proved  himself  to  have  sounded  the 
most  ethical  and  spiritual  sides  of. our  faith,  has  here 
struck  off",  in  a  few  words,  the  function  of  religion  as  a 
call  to  man,  to  properly  direct  his  life.  Religion  calls  upon 
man  to  see  his  life  as  it  is ;  to  ask  for  a  rule  of  guidance 


38  religion's  call. 

and  to  aspire  to  an  ideal  whieh  will  give  satisfaction  and 
peace  to  his  soul. 

Stand  on  the  ways  and  see.  The  first  step  in  knowl- 
edge is  the  cultivation  of  the  liabit  to  see  things  as  the}^ 
are.  Science  is  but  the  organized  and  well-sifted  series 
of  observations,  of  instances  of  true  seeing.  The  charac- 
teristic trait  of  the  scientific  thinker  is  thaf  he  is  able  to  see 
important  facts  and  connections  where  the  ordinary  eye 
will  see  nothing  of  striking  significance.  So  also  the 
cultivation  of  our  feeling  for  beauty  finds  a  natural  aid  in 
the  training  of  the  eye  to  see  the  subtle  shadings,  the 
graceful  contours,  the  poetic  symbolism,  in  a  world  of 
things  which  through  habit  have  become  commonplace. 
And  thus  also  in  the  facts  of  the  moral  life  of  man,  the 
world  of  the  soul,  the  first  requisite  is  to  see  ourselves  as 
we  are.  We  are  to  learn  to  take  a  comprehensive  and 
penetrating  look  into  the  mechanism  of  our  characters, 
to  detect  its  flaws  and  injuries,  to  learn  the  direction  of 
its  tendency.  In  the  world  of  action  we  become  used  up, 
warped,  stained.  In  thought  and  reflection  we  become 
aware  of  our  nature,  and  we  inevitably  judge  ourselves. 
"Stand  ye  in  the  ways  and  see"  means  study  your  history, 
scrutinize  your  ambitions,  look  into  your  memories,  and 
criticise  your  hopes. 

This  moment,  therefore,  asks  us  to  look  into  the  mirror 
of  sacred  self-scrutiny  and  see  what  our  lives  look  like 
after  a  year's  wear  and  use.  What  do  you  see  there  as  a 
man  of  the  world  ?  Does  your  life  ijresent  to  your  eye 
but  the  picture  of  a  restless,  striving,  pushing,  fretting 
egotism?  Is  it  only  an  intense,  unabating  pursuit  of 
business  whose  monotony  is  relieved  by  the  parallel  chase 
of  pleasure?  Or  does  there  mingle  amid  the  kaleido- 
scopic views  of  the  year's  experience  some  colors  from  a 
diviner  region  than  the  realm  of  trade?  Amid  the 
struggles,  victories   and   disappointments   of  commercial 


RELIGION^S    CALL.  39 

ambition,  is  there  visible  some  effort  of  freeing  yourself 
in  spirit  from  the  slavery  of  toil;  some  reaching  out  after 
the  possessions  of  the  soul,  some  triumphs  of  conscience 
in  its  conflict  with  temptation;  some  vindication  of  a 
higher  thought  amid  the  variety  of  animal  satisfactions, 
not  to  speak  of  ignoble  moral  surrenders. 

Woman,  relieved  from  the  rougher  contact  with  the 
struggle  for  life,  consecrated  by  her  position  and  oppor- 
tunity to  be  the  guardian  and  inspiration  of  a  view  of  life 
that  shall  act  as  counteracting  force,  that  shall  uphold  the 
ideal  of  duty,  of  tender  sympathy,  woman,  created  to  be 
more  sensitively  receptive  to  the  appeals  of  our  nobler 
nature,  she  ought  to  ask  herself  in  such  a  moment  as  this  : 
How  looks  my  life?  Have  I  used  my  exemption  from 
the  strain  of  toil  but  for  the  more  lavish  indulgence  of 
indolent,  wasteful  pleasure?  What  sacred  aspiration, 
what  love  of  culture  of  mind  and  heart,  what  nobler  out- 
look, what  sweeter  influence,  what  regenerating  deed  can 
my  past  life  show  up  as  having  cast  a  redeeming  and 
transfiguring  light  upon  the  life  of  the  family?  As 
parents  you  feel  in  this  moment  that  nothing  is  more 
precious  than  the  darlings  of  your  heart;  you  feel  that 
your  souls  are  knit  with  those  of  your  children.  A  spon- 
taneous outburst  of  gratitude  must  well  up  from  your 
hearts  in  the  knowledge  that  they  and  you  are  together, 
and  that  the  outgoing  year,  whatever  it  has  brought,  has 
been  truly  blest  in  that  it  has  not  separated  you  from 
them.  Ask  yourselves  what  share  you  have  had  in  the 
molding  of  their  characters.  Scrutinize  your  work;  see 
what  impress  you  have  made  upon  their  plastic  souls, 
which  have  been  entrusted  to  you  for  the  forming  and 
perhaps  decisive  influencing  of  their  whole  future.  Have 
you  risen  to  the  height  of  your  position?  to  the  sol- 
emnity of  your  responsibility  ?  and  through  patience, 
self-denial  and  increased   self-scrutiny,    have   you   made 


40  religion's  call. 

yourselves  what  you  ought  to  be,  true  representatives  of  a 
holy  authority,  an  ark  of  divine  law,  a  fountain  of  moral 
inspiration?  Or  must  you  acknowledge  that  frequently 
passion  and  caprice,  selfishness  and  inordinate  self-in- 
dulgence have  combined  to  vulgarize  the  home  and  rob 
it  of  its  sacredness,  because  there  was  not  in  it  the  rule 
and  sway  of  any  impulse  and  ambition  that  went  beyond 
the  satisfaction  of  purse  or  pleasure  ?  The  young,  they  who 
stand  in  the  critical  stage  of  transition,  between  childhood 
and  maturity,  they  who  are  not  supposed  to  lean  exclu- 
sively upon  the  aid  of  parent's  advice,  and  yet  in  whom 
the  passions  are  working  and  fermenting ;  they  who  are 
men  and  women  in  the  making,  let  them  on  a  night  like 
this  stand  on  the  parting  of  ways  and  see  whether  the 
year  has  been  one  of  progress  for  them,  and  in  what  direc- 
tion. Have  they  grown  not  merely  in  the  sense  that 
they  see  and  know  and  take  part  in  more  experiences 
than  children  ?  But  what  new  idea  can  they  point  to  ? 
What  new  knowledge  won?  What  virtue  cultivated? 
How  many  instances  of  manly  triumph  over  alluring 
vice  and  folly  can  they  call  their  own  ?  What  ideal  have 
they  attained,  and  what  practical  illustrations  of  it  in 
their  lives  ? 

"  Every  moment,"  the  sage  remarks,  "should  be,  and  no 
doubt,  can  be  made,  a  vantage  ground  from  which  to  view 
and  judge  our  past";  but  we  would  miss  the  significance 
of  the  hour  and  convict  ourselves  of  slavish  superstition  if 
in  this  thrice  sacred  evening  we  did  not  experience  what 
true  religion  is.  We  stand,  all  of  us,  loving  and  pleading 
for  life.  This  tenacious  clinging  to  life  we  share  with  the 
instinct  of  the  brute.  Let  us  ask  ourselves  how  we  have 
made  life  worth  living.  After  seeing  ourselves  as  we  are, 
which  every  one  is  able  to  do,  the  question  arises,  where  is 
the  way  which  is  good?  Let  us  walk  therein  and  find 
rest  for  our  souls.     The  prophet  here  tells  us  that  the 


religion's  call.  41 

ancient  ways  are  well  known.  Among  them  one  is  casil}^ 
recognized  as  that  which  leads  to  the  goal  of  rest  and  sat- 
isfaction of  the  soul.  He  assumed  a  knowledge  on  the 
part  of  his  hearers  because  this  way  was  identified  in  their 
minds  with  a  doctrine  preached  for  centuries  and  known 
as  the  way  of  righteous  life,  the  way  of  God. 

And  so  we  can  recognize  what  the  true  way  is  by  con- 
sulting humanity's  conscience  as  it  speaks  out  of  its  in- 
spired records,  out  of  its  literatures  and  philosophies, 
out  of  its  laws,  out  of  the  simple  dictates  of  every  man's 
heart.  There  is  a  wonderful  unanimity  as  to  the  theory 
what  the  good  way  is.  However  various  and  lasping  the 
modes  of  conduct  may  be,  however  devious  men's  meth- 
ods may  appear,  what  different  passions  may  urge  them, 
what  winding  ways  they  may  use  to  execute  their  desire, 
in  the  midst  of  the  motley  crowd  of  human  characters, 
two  ways  may  easily  be  distinguished  under  which  all 
these  may  be  grouped.  From  time  when  man  began 
existence  the  motive  and  purpose  of  his  actions  regarded 
either  himself,  his  own  interest,  or  something,  some  idea, 
some  person  beyond  himself.  Self-regarding  conduct  and 
that  which  has  reference  to  the  not-self,  these  are  the  two 
ways  upon  which  the  will  of  man  may  travel.  These  are 
the  opposite  poles  between  which  the  moral  life  of  man 
oscillates.  They  are  the  keys  with  which  to  read  the 
characters  of  his  soul  and  decide  from  them  its  worth. 
One  need  not  exclude  the  other,  but  the  latter  must  over- 
shadow and  dominate  the  former.  Conduct  which  has 
regard  for  some  purpose  outside  of  self  alone  gives  true 
satisfaction  and  peace  of  mind,  because  it  conforms  to  the 
innermost  law  of  our  being.  Selfishness  under  whatever 
form,  even  the  most  graceful  and  refined,  eventually 
brings  disillusion,  a  conviction  of  emptiness,  because  it 
conflicts  with  the  highest  law  of  our  nature.  The  differ- 
ence between  the  two  ways  is  clear,  simple,  easily  grasped, 


42  religion's  oAiX. 

though  its  appHcations  may  be  many  sided.  Our  life  is  a 
battle  ground  upon  which  these  two  principles  struggle 
for  supremacy,  and  according  to  the  issue  are  we  blessed 
or  cursed,  lifted  or  degraded,  purified  and  made  triumph- 
ant or  cast  in  despair. 

The  most  striking  phase  of  this  contest  is  revealed  in 
the  realm  of  conscience.  There  the  issue  is  clear  cut,  per- 
ceivable, even  to  the  dullest.  It  is  the  contest  between 
moral  law  and  self-interest  of  any  form.  The  moral  law, 
while  part  of  ourselves,  yet  places  itself  against  us  as  an 
authority  above  ourselves.  It  seeks  to  govern  us,  to  cir- 
cumscribe our  actions.  It  hems  us  in  on  all  sides  by  the 
"thou  shalt"  and  "thou  shalt  not."  To  our  self  schem- 
ing it  opposes  the  straight  way  of  righteousness.  Our 
greed  it  wants  to  restrain  by  justice.  ^  Our  passion  and 
inclination  it  attempts  to  overawe  by  the  stern  commands 
of  personal  purity  and  self-restraint.  It  is  the  watchman 
ever  ready  to  remind  us  that  in  the  pursuit  of  self-indul- 
gence we  are  in  danger  of  transgressing  the  laws  of  right 
living.  It  preaches  to  us  the  authority  of  the  law  which 
is  higher  than  self.  We  may  wilfully  disregard  its  in- 
junctions, but  we  do  so  at  our  peril.  It  pursues  us 
unrelentingly  like  a  shadow  darkening  our  life.  The 
retribution  it  imposes  is  shame  and  self-contempt.  It 
argues  a  false  psychology,  or  rather  it  overlooks  the  un- 
derlying principles  of  human  nature  when  it  is  asserted 
by  many  well-meaning  men,  even  in  the  liberal  pulpits, 
that  Judaism  is  inferior  as  a  religion  because  it  empha- 
sizes the  sternly  legal  aspect  of  morality.  I  think,  on  the 
contrary,  it  is  a  merit  of  our  religion  that  it  has  so  em-  V 
phatically  announced  the  authority  of  the  moral  law. 

The  law  speaks  truly  out  of  our  own  hearts  and  not  in 
a  strange,  arbitrary,  transcendent  language.  But  in  so  far 
as  the  moral  law  is  not  the  same  as  our  personal  whims, 
caprices  or  fancies,  it  must  be  acknowledged  to  be  the 


RELIGION  ^S    CALL.  43 

great  divine  power  and  authority  besides  which  the  per- 
sonality shrinks  into  insignificance.  In  so  far  as  we  obey 
the  moral  law  we  are  acting  from  a  motive  that  regards  a 
power  not  ourselves.  We  are  unselfish.  In  the  life  of 
the  young  the  revelation  of  the  authority  of  the  not-self 
is  particularly  made  through  the  conscience.  The  young 
especially  must,  as  their  nature  is  unfolding,  be  on  their 
guard,  lest  they  do  in  folly  what  is  positively  forbidden. 
For  they  can  hardly  realize  what  a  significance,  what  an 
influence,  what  an  all-shaping  effect  upon  their  future 
the  easy  habit  of  transgressing  laws  may  have. 

But  it  is  not  merely  in  questions  of  what  we  ought  to 
do  and  what  not  to  do  that  the  contest  between  selfishness 
and  not-self  is  revealed.  The  difference  of  these  two 
ways  is  shown  in  the  deliberate  purposes  of  our  life,  in 
the  things  we  aim  at  no  less  than  in  the  things  we  keep 
away  from.  While  it  is  true  that  the  first  condition  for 
becoming  saintly  in  character,  for  winning  the  luxury, 
if  one  may  so  express  it,  of  spirituality,  is  disciplining 
oneself  in  obedience  to  the  practical,  every-day  commands 
of  morality,  a  man  must  not  remain  negatively  good,  that 
is,  not  bad,  he  must  aspire  to  become  positively  good. 
Man  may  think  he  obeys  the  moral  law  in  so  far  as 
he  does  not  transgress  it.  He  may  be  scrupulously  observ- 
ant of  every  rule  of  conventional  morality,  do  nothing 
which  will  entail  the  condemnation  of  public  opinion, 
and  yet  he  may  be  traveling  on  the  wrong  way  through 
his  life ;  he  may  be  utterly  selfish.  The  question  for  man 
must  always  be  what  is  my  ideal  in  life?  Is  it  pleasure, 
wealth,  power,  honor,  happiness;  all  these  things  are 
essentially  selfish  aims,  and  history,  as  well  as  the  sad 
experience  of  thousands,  proves  how  little  satisfaction  and 
peace  for  the  soul  such  things  are  capable  of  bringing  to 
a  man  that  determinedly  pursues  them.  They  may  be 
used  as  means,  never  as  the  last  end  and  purpose  of  ex- 


44  religion's  call. 

istence.  The  true  way  of  life  for  a  man  is  devotion  to 
some  noble  purpose,  to  some  inspiring  cause,  to  some  idea 
that  makes  him  forget  self  altogether.  Whether  we  love 
truth  and  seek  it,  whether  we  love  our  fellow-men  and 
serve  them,  be  it  culture  or  philanthropy,  or  both,  the 
loftiest  combination  of  character,  only  in  having  such 
ideal  purposes  do  we  truly  serve  God.  We  are  on  the 
right  way,  the  way  of  the  not-self.  But  both  culture  and 
the  widely  spread  philanthropy  may  be,  in  so  far  as 
inspired  by  motives  of  vanity,  only  more  refined  forms  of 
selfishness.  In  a  word,  we  travel  on  the  right  way  when 
we  love  some  good  in  life  for  its  own  sake  and  not  as  a 
means  of  some  personal  gratification. 

But  do  you  know  what  is  the  highest  and  sublimest 
example  in  this  our  human  life  of  true  unselfishness  ?  It 
is  the  surrender  of  our  own  claims  to  the  disposition  of 
Providence.  How  often  does  it  happen  in  life  that  a  man 
who  has  scrupulously  to  the  utmost  of  his  ability  obeyed 
the  commands  of  conscience,  who  has  proven  himself 
capable  of  lofty  enthusiasms  and  active,  unselfish 
sympathy  with  his  fellows-men,  yet  becomes  a  victim  of  a 
seeming  heartless  fate.  How  the  catastrophes  break  one 
after  another  over  his  head  !  Out  of  the  depths  of  suffer- 
ing he  cries  out  in  agony,  where  is  my  reward?  But 
this  very  cry,  justified  as  it  seems  to  our  human  view, 
sympathize  with  as  we  must  by  our  pity,  yet  condemns 
itself  in  so  far  as  it  betrays  the  last  lingering  traces  of  the 
happiness  of  self,  as  a  purpose  in  life.  Therein  w^e  find 
the  secret  of  man's  position  in  the  world  that  he  is  to, 
recognize  that  he  has  no  absolute  claim  on  Providence. 
If  we  ask  reward  we  undo  in  a  moment  of  despair  a  whole 
lifetime  of  morality  and  philanthropy.  There  is  a  most 
impressive  figure  in  human  life.  It  is  when  a  simple  man 
or  woman,  in  the  very  midst  of  suffering,  can  still,  in 
heartrending  resignation,  say  with  Job :   "Though  He  slay 


religion's  call.  45 

me  yet  I  will  trust  in  Him."  This  is  the  height  to  which 
human  selfishness  may  rise.  The  good  way,  therefore,  is 
the  subordination  of  selfishness  to  law,  of  gratification 
to  a  holy  purpose,  of  personality  to  divine  Providence. 
And  when  we  have  found  this  way  we  have  found  rest 
and  peace  for  our  soul.  We  have  been  able  to  read  the 
riddle  of  life.  We  may  not  avoid  trouble,  worry  and 
care,  but  we  have  obtained  an  insight  into  what  is  the 
deepest  law  of  our  nature  which  gives  us  a  faith  and  power 
with  which  to  go  through  life  and  make  it  worth  living. 
Not  for  ourselves,  but  for  something  outside  of  self,  for  law, 
for  humanity,  for  truth,  for  justice,  for  God.  It  may  have 
appeared  to  you  strange  that  I  did  not  identify  the  way 
of  the  not-self  with  charity  or  philanthropy.  The  reason 
is  that  charity  or  philanthropy,  understood  as  practical 
almsgiving,  helping  others,  is  only  one  form  of  unselfish 
life. 

The  Talmudic  sages  say  "  The  handful  of  meal  cannot 
satiate  the  lion."  This  means:  petty  personal  gratification 
has  never  satisfied  any  human  soul.  Our  life  is  and 
remains  a  failure,  until  we  have  learned  to  go  out  of  self,  I 
humbly  obeying,  lovingly  helping,  joyously  clinging  to 
God,  who  is  to  be  for  us  the  very  essence  and  perfection 
of  what  is  true,  good  and  right.  The  good  way  is  to 
do  justice,  love  mercy  and  walk  in  humility  with  God. 
Paraphrased,  it  means  avoid  what  is  wrong,  unjust,  im- 
pure. Do  to  others  what  is  helpful,  lifting  and  encour- 
aging, and  with  all  be  ready  in  humility  without  any 
claim  for  thyself  even  to  offer  thyself  entirely  to  God. 
}l  Religion  always  has  been  and  is  to-day  this  call  to 
man  as  man.  To  observe  the  facts  of  life,  to  study  its 
tendencies,  and  find  the  way  which  brings  rest  to  the 
lacerated  heart,  the  troubled  conscience,  the  aspiring  soul. 
It  is  not  merely  creed,  although  man,  being  intellect,  must 
necessarily  make  one.    It  is  not  merely  good  deed,  al- 


46  religion's  call. 

though  this  is  its  noblest  fruitage,  and  most  solid  proof 
of  its  genuineness.  It  is  not  ceremonial  and  symbol,  al- 
though these  are  helps.  Religion,  daughter  of  heaven, 
organic  to  man,  has  created  them  all.  It  is  that  which 
out  of  the  depths  of  man's  being  calls  to  him/saying: 
"Stand  on  the  ways  and  study  your  life  ;  seek  ihe  right 
way,  and  walk  in  it,  and  you  will  find  rest."  Who,  in 
reviewing  his  life,  does  not  find  the  need  of  faith,  of  a 
principle  higher  than  that  which  he  is  wont  to  use  in  his 
thoughtless  daily  experience  ?  The  happy  need  religion 
to  save  them  from  hard  indifference  and  pride ;  the 
virtuous  need  it  to  protect  them  from  self-righteousness, 
the  cause  of  moral  corruption  ;  the  sinner  surely  needs  it 
as  an  inspiration,  a  promise  of  help  to  rise  from  his  de- 
gradation. Those  aspiring  to  a  higher  life  obtain  renewed 
conviction  from  its  message ;  the  suffering  and  heartbroken 
obtain  peace  and  rest.  So,  friends,  let  us  seek  our  God 
while  He  is  to  be  found.  Let  us  call  on  Him  when 
He  is  near.  Seeing  you  all  here  to-night,  the  familiar 
faces,  the  strange  faces,  to  all  of  you  I  give  the  greetings  of 
the  new  year.  May  it  bring  to  all  those  within  the  reach 
of  my  voice,  and  those  not  here  to-night,  life,  prosperity 
and  happiness.  But  as  we  pray  "Remember  us  to  life, 
King  desirous  of  life,  for  Thy  sake,  0  God  of  life,"  let  us 
be  filled  with  the  truth  that  this  prayer  brings  not  to  us, 
the  needful  help,  unless  it  is  supplemented  by  that  simple 
petition  of  the  divine  singer :  "0  make  me  understand, 
that  I  may  live."  Let  us  learn  that  to  truly  live  we  must 
forget  self.  Let  us  ask  the  ancient  ways,  find  the  way 
that  is  good,  the  way  that  turns  us  from  indolent,  thought- 
less self-indulgence,  from  impure  thoughts  and  vicious 
deeds,  from  cruel  and  heartless  Avant  of  sympathy,  from 
futile  pride  and  narrow  egotism.  Let  us  walk  the  way  of 
God,  and  find  rest  and  bliss,  peace  and  happiness. 
Amen, 


THE  GLORY  OF  RELIGION. 


SERMON    FOR   THE    EVE    OF    THE   DAY    OF    ATONEMENT, 
BY   DR.    K.   KOHLER. 


Welcome  ye  angels  of  light,  bright  messengers  of 
heavenly  peace  and  love,  blessed  Sabbath  and  Yom 
Kippur  Eve!  Come  and  fill  our  souls  with  the  glory 
of  divine  life,  with  the  sweet  incense  of  devotion,  with 
the  elevating  thoughts  of  God's  grace  and  mercy  !  Which 
of  the  thousand  and  one  sentiments  that  play  with  such 
melodious  strains  on  the  chords  of  our  hearts  to-night 
shall  I  single  out  for  brief  reflection?  Dare  it  be  other 
but  an  expression  of  joy  and  satisfaction  at  the  sight  of 
the  multitudes  of  devout  worshipers  that  throng  the  house 
of  God  in  his  solemn  moment  ?  Will  a  friend  who  meets 
the  longed-for  companion  of  former  days  again  after  years 
of  neglectful  absence,  will  the  mother  who  feels  the  de- 
spaired-of  son  retrace  his  steps  to  the  well-nigh  forgotten 
home  to  be  quickened  to  the  new  life  on  her  burning 
bosom,  mar  the  happiness  of  the  sweet  hour  of  recovery 
by  angry  rebuke  and  bitter  words  of  complaint  ?  A  tear 
sparkling  in  the  eye  washes  the  soul  clean  of  every  guilt, 
and  as  though  there  had  never  been  a  separating  cloud, 
the  hearts  are  cemented  and  brightened  anew.  "Return 
my  children,  saith  God,  and  I  will  be  like  dew  to  Israel, 
and  he  shall  bloom  as  the  lily."  May  we  all  realize  to- 
night how  far  more  precious  is  an  hour  spent  in  the 
courts  of  God  than  a  thousand  elsewhere.     Let  me  in  the 

(47) 


48  THE    GLORY   OF    RELIGION. 

brief  moments  granted  me,  speak  to  you  of  the  Glory  of 
Religion. 

There  is  a  peculiar  charm  about  a  religious  devotion 
at  night.  The  luminous  stars  of  heaven  whisper  into  our 
ears  the  glories  of  worlds  which  the  proud  ruler  of  day 
hides  beneath  his  robe  of  light. 

The  day  lures  the  intellect  on  to  penetrating  research, 
the  shadows  of  evening  fill  the  soul  with  wonder  and  awe. 
And  is  not  religion,  are  not  the  sublime  thoughts  of  God 
and  Immortality,  sin  and  destiny,  the  greatest  of  all 
wonders,  unfathomable  objects  of  human  speculation, 
immeasurable,  impenetrable,  like  the  dark  deep  nightly 
heaven?  Speaking  of  his  initiation  into  his  prophetic 
task,  the  seer  Ezekiel  says  :  "As  the  appearance  of  the 
bow  in  the  rain  cloud,  so  was  the  appearance  of  the  bright 
throne,  the  glory  of  the  Lord  ;  and  as  I  saw  it,  I  fell  upon 
my  face  and  heard  the  voice  of  God."  Why  did  the  sight 
of  the  rainbow  in  the  clouds  suggest  to  the  prophet  of  the 
exile  the  idea  of  God's  great  throne  in  heaven  ?  I  might 
answer  with  the  psalmist:  Cloud  and  darkness  are  round 
about  Him.  Yet  why  not  rather  find  Him  in  the  light  of 
day  and  hear  Him  proclaim :  Seek  me  and  you  will  find 
me  and  live !  Friends !  Think  of  the  old  legend  of  the 
flood  :  When  the  world  was  wrapped  in  darkness,  and 
sin  had  deluged  the  earth,  there  also  the  men  looked  up 
from  the  floating  ark  and  beheld  in  the  light  that  pierced 
the  night,  in  the  belt  of  beauty  that  arched  the  sky,  a 
pledge  of  God's  presence,  a  sign  of  peace  in  the  hand- 
writing of  the  Most  High.  What  is  the  meaning  of  these 
strange  hieroglyphics  of  the  Bible  ?  Out  of  the  darkness 
of  despair  and  disaster,  out  of  a  desolate  temple  there,  out 
of  a  world  in  ruins  here  mortal  man  looks  up  to  heaven  to 
find  God,  peace,  order,  the  gleam  of  hope  for  the  future, 
and  what  does  he  see  ?  The  orb  of  day  is  hidden  ;  dense 
blackness  has  covered  the  firmament ;  but  far  more  lumi- 


THE   GLORY   OF   RELIGION.  49 

nous  and  effulgent  than  the  light  of  sun  and  stars  is  the 
splendor  seen  on  the  clouds,  a  combination  of  rays  and 
colors  so  wonderful  that  neither  sky  nor  earth  have  any- 
thing to  match  it.  Surely  this  radiance  emanates  from 
some  majestic  source  of  light  concealed  from  human  view. 
Here  are  hidden  the  sun-beams  of  divine  love.  Thus 
argued  man  before  he  knew  the  nature  of  that  marvel- 
ous bridge  which  spans  the  heaven  with  beauty.  And 
with  his  deeper  insight  into  the  mysteries  of  God,  the  seer 
beheld  there  in  the  truth  convej^ed  :  "Mountains  may 
depart  and  hills  be  shaken.  Yet  my  mercy  shall  never 
depart,  and  my  covenant  of  love  shall  never  be  removed, 
saith  the  Lord  who  hath  compassion  on  thee."  And  is 
this  grand  lesson  not  still  the  same  for  us  ? 

With  a  mind  eager  to  drink  in  the  glory  of  the  universe, 
we  look  out  through  the  windows  of  our  soul  to  perceive 
the  truth,  yet  just  as  our  eyes  will  at  the  end  droop  fa- 
tigued and  dazed  by  the  rays  of  the  sun,  so  must  our 
spirit  stop  in  its  onward  flight  when  searching  for  God. 
We  may  advance  from  age  to  age,  scanning  the  deep  and 
scaling  the  heights  to  penetrate  ever  closer  into  the  secrets 
of  creation  and  with  ever  sharper  weapons  dispel  the 
clouds  that  overhang  the  process  of  nature's  work.  We 
may  succeed  in  unraveling  all  the  causes  and  laws  that 
govern  the  world.  Yet  the  Master  above  remains  forever 
hidden  in  his  innermost  sanctuary.  We  behold  but  the 
hem  of  His  garment;  His  being  is  beyond  finding  out. 
Shall  we  therefore  deprive  the  Universe  of  a  Ruler  and 
Father,  and,  with  the  A,gnostic,  doubt,  with  the  atheist, 
deny,  that  life  has  a  purpose,  a  harmonious  plan  and  call 
existence  a  mere  chance,  the  world — a  failure?  Shall  we 
decry  religion  as  folly,  prayer  as  madness ;  God  a  phan- 
tasmagoria, an  empty  dream  ?  Why  behold  this  manifold 
beauty  and  grandeur  of  the  cosmos,  follow  these  laws 
which  lead  from  pebble  to  planets,  from  mineral  to  man, 


50  THE   GLORY   OF   RELIGION. 

from  sun  dust  to  solar  systems.  Are  these  not  the  broken 
rays  of  God's  wisdom  reflected  upon  our  little  brain,  ki- 
minous  foot-steps  of  His  glory  seen  in  the  clouds  ? 

Yes,  reason  manifests  the  plan  and  order  of  the  finite. 
Religion  unfolds  the  beauty  and  glory  of  the  Infinite. 
The  intellect  with  its  ever-progressive,  restless  inquiry 
after  truth  fathoms  the  immensity  of  the  visible,  but  stops 
breathless,  hopeless,  helpless  before  the  cloudland  of  the 
unknowable.  Religion,  beholding  the  arch  of  splendors 
stretched  over  the  dark  abyss,  points  to  the  glory  of  the 
Father  who  is  enthroned  in  the  light  above  and  makes  us  , 
bow  down  in  adoration,  to  join  the  seraphs  in  their  cry  ( 
"  Holy,  holy,  holy  is  the  Lord  of  hosts  !" 

But  there  is  a  much  loftier  truth  expressed  in  my  text 
to  especially  befit  our  emotions  to-night.  Why  was  this 
rainbow,  this  golden  ring  uniting  earth  and  heaven,  first 
beheld  by  man  after  the  flood?  We  enjoy  the  brightness 
of  heaven  only  after  black  clouds  have  for  days  obscured 
the  view.  We  prize  health  and  happiness  only  after  some 
peril  or  grief  has  brought  home  their  inestimable  value  to 
us.  Tears  make  the  smiles  of  friendship  all  the  more 
precious  to  us.  We  are  children  of  the  moment,  and  con- 
tinual sameness  of  life  tires  us,  A  voyage  under  a  cloud- 
less sky  and  on  smooth  waters,  however  pleasant,  wearies 
us  at  the  end.  And  the  same  holds  true  of  our  inner  life. 
Our  covenants  of  love  and  friendship  are  often  best  ce- 
mented by  tears  of  anguish,  by  severe  tests,  by  trying 
moments  of  wavering  doubt  and  of  dissension.  A  treas- 
ure lost  but  recovered  becomes  dearer  to  us  than  when  we 
never  missed  it.  This  was  the  significance  of  the  sign  of 
peace  hung  up  in  the  sky  after  the  storm.  It  betokened 
regeneration  to  a  race  doomed,  forgiveness  to  a  world 
flooded  with  sin.  It  spoke  of  a  harmony  restored,  of 
happiness  recovered,  of  life  rejuvenated. 

Is  this  not  the  privilege  and  prerogative  of  religion? 


THE   GIX)RY   OF   RELIGION.  51 

The  law  of  justice,  the  code  of  ethics  says  :  Be  just,  be 
good,  be  brave,  and  as  long  as  you  live  up  to  the  dictates 
of  the  stern  rule  of  conduct,  no  matter  whence  it  eman- 
ates, you  are  tolerated,  cheered  and  spurred  on.  Your 
success,  your  honor  and  social  recognition  depend  on 
your  pursuing  the  straight  line.  But  woe  to  you  when 
fate  and  passion  bestir  and  unman  you,  when  fortune  and 
friends  frown  on  you.  What  will  hold  you  up  when 
your  conscience  and  your  honor  condemn  you  and  sur- 
render you  to  the  world's  scorn  and  pitiless  shame? 
Behold,  there  shines  God's  majesty  upon  the  very  clouds, 
smiling  graciously  to  offer  new  courage  to  the  shipwrecked 
and  new  strength  to  the  fallen.  Through  the  tears  of 
grief  and  compunction  strikes  the  light  of  God's  love. 
However  black  with  blame  your  past  life  be,  look  up  to 
the  sky  to  find  God's  arm  outstretched  in  all  the  bright- 
ness of  a  new  creation  to  lift  you  out  of  the  whirlpool  of 
despair  and  renew  His  covenant  of  love  with  you.  What 
if  men  scold  or  scorn, — rise  to  hear  the  angels  sing  their 
welcome  to  him  who  has  struggled  hard  but  won  at  the 
end. 

This  is  the  greatness  and  glory  of  Yom  Kippur:  we 
are  not  perfect,  not  free  from  guilt  and  shame  ;  and  yet 
we  need  nor  priest  nor  mediator,  nor  blind  surrender  of 
reason  or  vicarious  sacrifice  to  obtain  God's  pardon. 
When  we  cast  our  sins  into  the  sea  and  throw  ourselves 
upon  our  Father's  bosom,  heaven  is  opened  anew  unto  us. 
The  lost  paradise  of  childhood  is  regained.  We  become 
God's  children  again,  and  greater  is  the  joy  in  heaven 
over  him  who  has  fallen  into  the  snare,  but  sins  no  more, 
than  over  him  who  has  never  been  tempted? 

But  as  yet  I  have  not  dwelt  on  religion's  greatest 
glories.  People  often  say :  you  have  too  many  fasts  and 
fetiches,  forms  and  formulas  of  faith  which  do  not  appeal 
to  my  reason,     Why?    Is  it  not  exactly  the  mixture  of 


52  THE   GLORY   OF    RELIGION. 

sun  and  cloud,  of  light  and  darkness  that  makes  the  rain- 
bow so  rich  with  charm  and  splendor  ?_/ /Naked  truth  is 
for  God  alone,  not  for  frail  mortals.  (Religion  is  but  a  ' 
sigh,  a  longing  for  light  and  perfection,  and  its  glorious 
response  thereto.  Earth  and  heaven,  the  human  and  the 
divine,  blend  harmoniously  thereinJ  Without  showers, 
there  is  no  rainbow.  Nor  is  there  the  brightness  of  com- 
fort and  hope,  of  sympathy  and  redeeming  love  without 
the  torrents  of  woe,  without  the  storm-doings  of  suffering 
and  death.  /You  cannot  have  life  made  out  of  sunshine 
alone.  There  must  be  night  and  blight,  trials  and  tribu- 
lations. But  behold  the  bridge  of  heavenly  grace  which 
religion  builds  over  the  wide  chasm  to  turn  night  into 
light,  and  blight  into  blessing,  trial  into  triumph.  How- 
ever loud  the  alarm  of  despair  was  Prince  Guadama 
Buddha  sounded  forth,  his  religion  reared  the  first  hospi- 
tals and  houses  of  refuge  in  pagandom,  to  give  the  lie  to 
Nirvana's  gloom.  However  certain  the  followers  of  Jesus 
were  of  the  approaching  downfall  of  the  world,  faith  in 
his  God  regenerated  the  ancient  world  and  rebuilt  it  on 
helping  love  and  charity.  /Eeligion,  the  spirit  of  God, 
says  the  Hebrew  prophet,  is  hope  for  the  despondent, 
strength  for  the  failing,  comfort  for  the  sorrowing,  relief  to 
the  distressed,  help  to  the  needy,  joy  for  the  cheerless. 
The  lower  down  the  sun  is,  the  grander  the  golden  arch 
of  the  rainbow.  Science,  art  and  industry  gave  man  all 
the  comfort  and  wealth  of  the  earth;  religion  displayed 
the  beauty  and  glory  of  heaven — made  man  benevolent, 
generous,  kind-hearted,  forgiving — God-like,  bridged 
heaven  and  earth  by  the  works  of  love  and  philan- 
thropy. Need  I  single  out  to  you  what  wealth  of  light 
and  what  beauty  of  holiness  religion  was  to  the  Jew  in 
the  time  when  sin  and  cruel  barbarity  deluged  the  earth 
with  blood  and,  like  the  dove  of  the  ark,  he  searched  for 
a  place  of  safety,  but  found  it  nowhere  except  in  his  own 


THE  GLORY  OF  ftELlGtON.  53 

home?  Need  I  emphasize  to-night  what  the  Jew  did 
and  what  he  is  still  accomplishing  in  the  field  in  which 
he  stands  out  unequaled  throughout  the  ages  ? 

"The  temple  is  in  ruins,  but  the  sacrificial  flame  of 
charity  and  beneficence  will  forever  burn  brightly  upon 
the  altar  of  the  Jewish  heart,"  said  the  great  master,  Ben 
Sakkai,  and  eighteen  centuries  have  been  at  work  to  fulfil 
his  grand  prophecy. 

Nor  has  it  grown  dimmer  in  our  age,  or  in  our  country. 
Dark  clouds  have  arisen  on  the  Jewish  horizon  in  the 
years  past,  but  we  beheld  the  majesty  of  divine  love  and 
sympathy  shine  out  of  the  darkness  to  imbue  the  heart 
with  greater  fortitude,  with  heroic  self-abnegation,  and 
cheer  and  spur  them  on  with  greater  hope  for  the  future. 

What  of  the  shadows  that  rise  over  the  east  ?  What  of 
the  doubts  that  overcast  the  faith  of  the  Jew  in  the  west  ? 
I  see,  above  all  the  quarreling  sects  and  races  and  classes 
and  opinions  of  men,  an  arch  of  silver  and  gold,  of  purple 
and  violet,  of  all  the  colors  of  the  rainbow,  spanned  over 
the  future — and  above  it  the  words  inscribed  in  letters 
of  fire  :  "Yom  Hakippurim — Day  of  Reconciliation  and 
Peace  between  all  creeds,  all  sciences,  all  systems  of  truths, 
and  all  men."  Centuries  will  come  and  go,  empires  will 
rise  and  vanish  like  bubbles,  philosophies  will  spring  up 
and  dissolve  like  smoke,  and  the  Jew  will  partake  in 
all  the  strifes  and  vexations,  in  all  the  hatred  and  love 
of  man,  but  that  bow  of  the  covenant  made  between  God 
and  man,  shown  in  the  Bible,  that  religion  of  humanity 
proclaimed  by  Israel  and  built  up  of  all  the  precious 
light  that  gleams  through  the  ages  of  history,  through  the 
progress  of  man  in  all  the  colors  of  the  prism  of  human 
intellect,  will  form  the  canopy  of  the  new  heaven  and  the 
foundation  of  the  new  earth.  Sinai's  covenant  will  over- 
arch the  ages  and  re-unite  man  with  man,  the  creature  withS 
his  Creator.     Israel,  thy  God  is  the  hope  of  mankind  ! 


54  tMT5  GLORY  OF  RELlalOJ^. 

Brethren,  let  us  clasp  hands  for  friendship  and  for 
fellowship,  for  granting  and  asking  pardon,  ibr  hearty 
co-operation  in  the  work  of  love  and  charity,  for  the 
re-awakening  and  up-building  of  life  in  our  midst,  in  our 
congregation.  And  whatever  tears,  worries  and  clouds  of 
cares  the  years  past  have  brought,  let  us  wait  for  the  bright- 
ness of  the  Glory  of  God  to  appear  and  illumine  our  com- 
ing years  with  hope  and  peace  and  life.     Amen. 


SIN  AND  FORGIVEr>JESS. 


SERMON   FOR   THE    EVE     OF     THE     DAY     OF     ATONEMENT. 
BY    RABBI    I.    S.    MOSES. 


The  night  has  come,  ushering  in  Israel's  most  sacred 
day.  Wherever  the  descendants  of  Abraham  dwell  on 
this  vast  globe — whether  on  the  smi-kissed  soil  of  liberty, 
or  under  the  leaden  sky  of  despotism  and  poverty— every- 
where this  night  has  the  magic  power  to  bring  together 
the  scattered  members  of  Israel,  to  weld  for  one  brief  day 
the  remnants  of  a  people  into  one  holy  community. 
What  a  wonderful  charm  does  this  day  hold,  to  thus  spell 
into  awe  and  reverence  the  most  callous  and  indifferent 
of  our  people,  and  to  arouse  within  them  those  solemn 
thoughts  and  sacred  emotions  characteristic  of  this  day  ? 

There  is  no  day  in  the  calendar  of  any  other  religion, 
ancient  or  modern,  that  ever  exercised  a  similar  influence 
upon  men's  souls  as  the  Day  of  Atonement  does  upon  the 
people  of  Israel ;  nor  has  any  other  religion  embodied  in 
any  of  its  festivities  the  principle  which  lent   name  and 
character  to  the  day  we  celebrate.     Whence  this  strange 
anomaly?     Is  not  every  religion  based  upon  this  deeper  , 
need  of  the  soul,  the  longing  of  the  heart  to  be  reconciled  \ 
to  that  Power  it    worships   as  ruling   its    destiny?      To  ' 
meditate   atonement    between   the  sin-laden   mortal   and 
his  Maker;  to   reconcile  the  insulted  majesty  of  the  su- 
preme Being  with  the  guilt-covered  but  repenting  child  of 
dust;  to  hold  out  to  the  erring  and  suffering  man  the  hope 

(55) 


56  SiN   AND   F0RGIVENKB8. 

of  forgiveness  and  to  bring  him  the  message  of  pardon,  has 
always  been  considered  the  chief  function  of  every  religion. 
And  still  the  fact  remains  that  none  but  Israel's  faith  has 
erected  an  indestructible  monument  to  this  idea  of  for- 
giveness in  the  institution  of  the  Day  of  Atonement.  The 
reason  for  this  singular  exception  must  be  sought  in  the 
radically  different  notions  of  sin,  as  held  by  Israel's 
teachers  and  those  taught  by  other  religions.  In  all 
heathen  religions  sin  is  not  a  product  of  man's  free  will, 
but  an  incidental  occurrence  arousing  the  anger  of  the  gods 
and  bringing  down  their  vengeance  upon  the  head  of  the 
guilty.  The  divine  wrath  often  pursues  the  offender  with 
a  bitterness  and  persistent  cruelty  quite  out  of  proportion 
to  the  wickedness  of  the  deed.  Neither  sighs  of  regret 
nor  prayers  of  repentance  are  of  any  avail;  the  anger  of 
the  gods  can  be  pacified  only  when  full  restitution  for  the 
harm  or  the  damage  done  to  them  has  been  made,  or  the 
equivalent  paid  in  sacrifices  or  sufferings.  Therefore 
heathenism  could  not  produce  a  day  of  atonement,  for  it 
was  not  man,  the  repenting  sinner,  who  was  to  be  recon- 
ciled, but  the  angry  and  vengeful  gods  were  to  be 
propitiated.  Man,  according  to  the  heathen  notion,  has 
no  other  relation  to  Deity  but  that  of  the  weaker  to  the 
stronger.  Christianity,  though  solely  based  upon  the 
principle  of  atonement,  retained  the  heathen  conception  of 
sin:  Sin  disturbs  the  equanimity  of  God;  his  anger  is 
aroused,  it  must  find  vent  in  punishment  of  the  offender. 
Only  when  justice  has  had  its  sway,  and  the  wicked  has 
received  the  full  measure  of  the  divine  wrath,  will  the 
nature  of  God  be  satisfied.  In  spite  of  the  consoling 
doctrine  of  the  grace  of  God,  and  the  belief  in  God's 
infinite  and  all-embracing  love,  this  fundamental  con- 
ception of  sin  rendered  a  reconciliation  of  God  to  man 
impossible.  Punishment  may  be  postponed,  but  it  is 
inevitable.     The  consequence  of  sin  is   death.     Through 


StN  AND  PoftGlVENESS.  57 

the  sin  of  the  first  man,  the  lives  of  all  human  beings 
are  tainted ;  redemption  from  this  hereditary  evil  cannot 
come  from  man.  Nothing  short  of  a  miracle  can  save 
him.  To  escape  this  dilemma  and  to  save  mankind  from 
utter  destruction,  Christianity  introduced  the  idea  of  the 
substitutive  sacrifice,  the  office  of  vicarious  atonement,  or 
the  voluntary  offering  of  a  sinless  being  for  the  wicked- 
ness of  others.  The  divine  wrath  has  been  appeased, 
justice  has  found  its  object,  punishment  has  been  meted 
out,  and  now  the  full  stream  of  God's  love  and  mercy  may 
roll  its  cleansing  and  refreshing  waves  over  the  repenting 
soul.  Such  a  plan  of  salvation  implies  a  continual  'process 
of  atonement,  and  cannot  be  satisfied  with  the  ministration 
of  one  day  to  effect  that  divine  reconciliation. 

What  is  the  attitude  of  Judaism  toward  this  vital 
question  of  sin  and  pardon  ?  What  are  the  means  which 
Israel  employs  to  bring  to  man  the  assurance  of  divine 
forgiveness  ? 

A  quaint  legend  of  the  prophets,  a  precious  gem  of 
thought,  hidden  beneath  the  rubbish  of  historical  happen- 
ings, will  best  illustrate  the  position  of  Judaism  to  the 
problem  of  sin,  the  high  estimate  it  places  on  man,  and 
the  means  it  employs  to  reconcile  him  to  God. 

"The  men  of  the  city  of  Jericho  said  to  Elisha: 
Behold,  we  pray  thee,  the  situation  of  this  city  is  pleas- 
ant, as  my  lord  seeth,  but  the  water  is  evil,  and  therefore 
the  land  casteth  off.  And  he  said :  Bring  to  me  a  new 
cruse  and  put  salt  therein.  And  they  brought  it  to  him, 
and  he  went  to  the  spring  of  the  waters  and  cast  salt 
therein  and  said:  Thus  saith  the  Lord,  I  have  healed 
these  waters;  there  shall  not  be  from  them  any  more 
death  or  disease."     (II  Kings,  chap,  ii,  19-22.) 

There  was  an  older  tradition  that  Jericho  had  been 
cursed,  never  to  be  rebuilt.  Disrobed  of  its  mythical  and 
mystical  drapings,  this  little  legend  is  but  a  description 


5^  StN  ANt)   FORGIVENESS. 

of  the  difference  between  the  Jewish  conception  of  sin  and 
atonement  and  that  of  other  rehgions.  There  is,  on  the 
one  hand,  the  older  doctrine  of  man's  inborn  wickedness 
and  sinfulness.  His  flesh  is  a  cesspool  of  vice,  a  juniper 
swamp  of  corruption.  Man  cannot  help  sinning;  his  very 
nature  is  evil ;  death  is  his  only  cure.  If  redemption  is 
to  come  it  can  be  only  by  supernatural  intervention.  But 
Judaism  declares :  The  situation  of  the  city  is  pleasant ; 
man's  nature  is  good ;  he  is  not  the  curse-laden  creature 
groaning  under  the  load  of  some  original  sin.  Behold  the 
infant,  smiling  in  gratitude  for  a  kind  w^ord  or  caress; 
does  its  face  bear  the  stamp  of  innate  wickedness  ?  The 
evil  influences  of  life  poison  our  disposition  and  corrupt 
our  character.  To  be  healed  of  our  moral  evils  no  mira- 
cle is  required ;  we  need  no  wondrous  cure.  We  must  but 
like  the  prophet  go  to  the  source  of  evil  and  with  the 
means  which  he  symbolically  suggests,  heal  ourselves  of 
our  spiritual  sickness. 

Judaism  teaches  a  doctrine  of  atonement,  the  chief 
interest  of  which  centers  not  in  the  nature  of  Deity, 
>  but  in  the  heart  of  man;  the  change  to  be  brought 
about  is  not  one  in  the  temper  of  God,  but  in 
man's  own  soul.  Man  is  to  be  reconciled,  not  God. 
Therefore,  Judaism  knows  of  no  miraculous,  no  super- 
natural means  of  atonement.  The  sacrifices  offered  at  the 
Temple  at  Jerusalem  possessed  no  vicarious  quality;  the}^ 
were  part  of  a  priestly  ritualism  shared  by  all  ancient 
worships.  Nor  was  the  High-priest's  office  that  of  a 
mediator  between  God  and  man ;  he  was  but  the  repre- 
sentative of  the  people,  the  chosen,  appointed  or  heredi- 
tary religious  chief  of  the  nation  in  whose  name  and 
behalf  he  acted.  It  is  man,  and  man  alone,  in  whom 
this  process  must  take  place.  To  this  end  Judaism  has 
chosen  the  simplest  possible  means  and  methods.  It  has 
set  apart  one  day  in  the  year,  on  which  man  shall  give 


SIN  ANi)  P0iiGIVteNES§.  59 

himself  up  unto  himself  and  shall  find  himself  again. 
Left  alone  with  his  better  self,  secluded  from  the  world 
and  its  turmoil,  and  bidden  to  examine  his  conduct,  to 
search  his  sins  and  confess  his  failings,  man  will  soon 
discover  that  within  him  alone  lies  the  source  of  his 
misery,  and  that,  as  no  one  can  be  held  responsible  for 
his  good  or  evil  disposition,  so  no  one  has  the  power  to 
lift  him  from  his  degradation  except  he  himself.  To  such 
solemn  thoughts  man  is  not  susceptible  in  the  hurry  and 
noise  of  life's  toil ;  not  every  day  can  he  hold  such  holy 
communion  with  his  soul;  ^lpr\  bi<  Hj;  ^ID^  ^n**  ^«T 
Only  once  a  year  may  he  lift  the  veil  screening  from 
profane  eyes  his  innermost  sanctuary,  and  there  behold 
the  light  of  a  larger  self  than  is  stored  in  his  narrow 
frame,  and  there  to  be  reconciled  unto  himself. 

Sin,  according  to  Jewish  conception,  is  not  an  incidental 
act  or  series  of  acts  arousing  the  fierce  anger  of  God,  but 
a  condition  of  human  temper.  Good  and  evil  are  not  occur- 
rences, but  modes  of  existence.  They  affect  not  in  the 
least  the  nature  of  God  ;  their  potency  lies  within  us, 
working  for  our  weal  or  woe.  In  other  words,  evil  is  a 
pathological  process ;  sin  is  sickness  of  the  soul.  The 
patient  must  be  cured,  not  the  physician.  Nor  will  it 
be  of  any  avail  to  the  poor  sufferer  if  any  one  else, 
from  motives  of  pure  love  and  compassion,  will  undergo 
the  painful  treatment  intended  for  the  patient,  or  suffer 
the  pangs  and  tortures  of  the  disease,  and  even  laj'' 
down  his  life  for  the  unfortunate  one.  No !  the  patient 
must  conquer  his  sickness.  The  physician  does  not  heal 
the  patient,  and  the  medicine  does  not  destroy  the 
disease ;  the  one  indicates  the  nature  of  the  disease, 
and  the  other  helps  to  speed  or  retard  the  natural 
functions  of  the  organism  until  the  normal  condition  is 
regained.  Sin  is  sickness.  How  will  you  act  if  any 
one  of  your  dear  ones  be  taken   ill?    Will   you  grow 


60  SIN  AMD  FORGIVENESS. 

cuvn-y  and  lose  your  temper  or  even  strike  the  child  when 
sickness  has  befallen  it?  Will  you  not  rather  with 
patience  and  prudence  apply  all  proper  means  to  re- 
store your  child  to  health?  And  can  we  believe  that 
God  is  less  tender  and  merciful  to  His  children  than 
poor,  blind  and  blundering  man?  Is  it  not  blasphemy 
then  to  utter  this  libel  upon  Deity,  to  repeat  this  inane 
assertion  that  God's  anger  is  kindled  at  man's  spiritual 
sickness ;  that  He  is  wreaking  vengeance  upon  the  sin- 
ning soul,  and  that  He  must  be  appeased  by  presents  or 
prayers,  by  ceremony  or  sacrifice,  if  needs  be,  by  the  life 
of  the  innocent  for  the  guilty  ?  ' '  God  is  punishing  me  for 
my  sins  !"  is  the  outcry  of  a  despairing  heart,  often  uttered 
in  the  agony  of  some  fresh  bereavement.  No!  God  is 
not  a  cruel  tyrant  and  merciless  executioner?  Not  He 
punishes  us  for  our  sins,  but  our  own  misdeeds  carry  the 
penalty  with  them.  It  is  to  ourselves  that  we  must 
turn,  pleading  before  the  tribunal  of  our  conscience,  testi- 
fying before  the  majesty  of  our  convictions,  that  we  have 
been  false  to  our  trusts  and  our  truths,  low  in  our  desires, 
selfish  and  insatiable  in  our  cravings,  cruel  and  ungrateful 
in  our  dealings  with  others,  and  by  such  confession  so 
arouse  and  stir  up  our  better  self  that  our  soul  shall  re- 
gain its  resilient  power,  triumph  over  the  insidious 
disease,  expel  from  our  moral  system  the  danger- 
breeding  germs,  and  thus  restore  within  us  the  healthful 
activity  of  our  spiritual  faculties. 

Is  it  not  clear  now,  even  to  the  dullest  mind,  that 
the  service  of  song  and  prayer  can  only  be  that  of  arous- 
ing our  own  heart  from  its  wonted  lethargy,  touching 
the  strings  of  our  soul  and  making  them  vibrate  in  re- 
sponse to  the  words  of  our  lips?  Of  what  value,  then, 
are  meaningless  and  unintelligible  utterances,  spoken  or 
chanted,  as  if  by  them  we  meant  to  charm  God  into 
yielding  to  our  wishes,  or  to  persuade  him  by  the  multi- 


SIN   AND   FORGIVENESS.  61 

tude  of  our  prayers  to  take  away  from  us  our  sins  and 
make  undone  our  misdoings  ? 

What  now  must  we  do,  you  ask,  to  obtain  forgiveness 
and  atonement?  We  must  follow  the  example  of  the 
prophet,  go  to  the  source  of  evil  and  cast  into  it  the  salt 
that  shall  cure  our  fountain  of  life.  Salt,  in  the  physical 
world,  is  that  element  which,  though  itself  lacking  any 
nutritive  quality  and  bitter  of  taste,  helps  to  preserve  the 
meat  against  corruption  and  lends  sweetness  to  our  food. 
Salt  is  the  indispensable  spice  of  all  viands,  without  it 
our  choicest  and  costliest  meals  would  be  tasteless  and 
insipid.  In  the  moral  world  there  is  one  virtue  which, 
like  salt  in  the  physical,  serves  to  sweeten  our  lives  and 
give  to  our  nature  that  strength  and  consistency  enabling 
it  to  withstand  the  corrupting  and  decomposing  influ- 
ences of  lust  and  greed  and  of  overbearing  pride. 

That  virtue  is  called  humility  ;  it  is  one  of  the  cardinal 
virtues  of  all  ethics,  but  it  is  particularly  a  growth  of 
Jewish  moral  and  religious  experience.  The  word  is 
derived  from  a  root  signifying  lowliness,  poverty, 
dejection;  and  indeed,  it  must  be  confessed,  that  origi- 
nally it  referred  to  that  condition  of  the  heart  produced 
by  the  severe  blows  of  outward  misfortune,  that  humil- 
iation of  the  soul  consequent  upon  the  destruction  of 
earthly  wealth  or  happiness,  even  so  as  pride  and 
arrogance  were  considered  as  the  baneful  fruit  of  unde- 
served success.  Yet,  though  born  of  worldly  misery,  it 
rises  to  the  uplifting  thought  that  God  will  not  abandon 
the  unfortunate,  that  as  He  has  sent  these  visitations,  He 
will  also  have  compassion  upon  the  stricken  one  and 
bring  him  again  to  honor.  Poor  and  wretched,  he  looks 
up  to  the  perfect  holiness  and  justice  of  God,  and  then 
discovers  that  his  sufferings  must  be  the  result  of  his  own 
sinfulness;  therefore,  instead  of  arraigning  divine  Provi- 
dence, he  accuses  himself,  and  contritely  implores  God's 


62  SIN   AND   FORGIVENESS. 

grace  and  forgiveness  to  create  within  him  a  i)iire  heart 
and  an  upright  spirit;  to  look  upon  his  broken  and 
contrite  heart  as  upon  an  acceptable  sacrifice,  a  sacred 
pledge  and  promise  of  the  thorough  change  in  disposition, 
his  joyful  readiness  to  do  God's  will.  Thus  this  prayer 
brings  to  the  humble  heart  the  blissful  consciousness  of 
peace  with  God,  the  gladsome  assurance  of  divine 
forgiveness. 

But  humility  is  not  exclusively  the  virtue  of  poverty 
and  misfortune ;  it  is  no  less  the  crowning  glor}^  of  wealth 
and  happiness.  You  remember  the  touching  words  of 
the  patriarch  Jacob  when  mustering  his  strength  for  the 
coming  battle :  "  0  God,  I  am  unworthy  of  all  the  love 
and  mercy  which  Thou  hast  shown  to  Thy  servant ;  for 
with  nothing  but  this  staff  I  passed  over  this  Jordan 
and  now  I  am  the  possessor  of  two  camps."  This  is 
the  language  that  beseemeth  him  blessed  with  earthly 
goods :  "  I  am  too  small,  too  insignificant  for  this  great 
success ;  it  is  by  God's  grace  and  blessing  that  these  things 
are  mine,  and  from  Thine  own  I  give  to  Thee."  Not 
only  wealth  and  prosperity,  but  also  intellectual  greatness, 
is  ennobled  through  humility.  The  wisest  of  all  law- 
givers, the  deepest  of  all  thinkers  shrinks  in  the  presence 
of  God  and  hesitates  to  accept  the  divine  charge,  because 
he  feels  his  insufficiency.  "  AVho  am  I,"  he  exclaims, 
' '  that  I  should  accomplish  the  great  task  to  liberate  my 
people  ? "  All  true  greatness  is  humble,  doubting  its 
own  strength  and  ability,  and  attributing  its  success  to 
the  love  and  wisdom  of  God.  Intellectual  greatness  with- 
out meekness,  genius  without  the  tempering  and  sweeten- 
ing grain  of  humility,  is  unbearable  and  unenjo^^able  as 
the  most  inviting  meal  is  tasteless  without  salt. 

And  even  so  the  virtue  of  humility  is  the  true  preser- 
vative of  our  moral  relations  ;  it  alone  protects  us  against 
the  extravagances  and  aberrations  of  our  desires,  the  cor- 


SIN   AND   FORGIVENESS.  63 

rnption  of  our  passions,  the  poisonous  seeds  of  hatred  and 
revenge,  the  deadly  germs  of  greed  and  covetousness. 
Can  he  be  swayed  by  low  desires  who  is  conscious  of  the 
greatness  of  God  surrounding  him  everywhere,  who  feels 
that  he  is  in  the  presence  of  that  Power  whose  nature  is 
holiness,  whose  being  is  justice  and  whose  existence  is 
truth  ?  Will  he  not  tremble  in  all  his  being  at  the  mere 
thought  of  evil,  and  choke  the  wicked  inclination  at  its 
very  dawn  ?  Or  how  can  he  lift  himself  in  overbearing 
pride  above  his  fellow-men,  whose  soul  is  humbled  by  the 
tliought  of  the  majesty  of  God,  compared  with  which 
man's  most  glorious  achievements  are  but  images  of 
dreamland  ?  This  thought  is  a  true  petition  for  spiritual 
help  and  is  sure  to  be  answered.  It  has  found  expression 
in  one  of  the  oldest  prayers,  appropriately  recited  at 
the  close  of  the  Day  of  Atonement.  "  What  are  we,  what 
is  our  life,  what  is  our  strength,  what  our  virtue,  what  our 
loveliness  ?  Our  heroes  are  as  naught  before  Thee,  our 
wise  men  as  if  without  knowledge,  for  most  of  our  actions 
are  vanity,  and  life  is  but  a  fleeting  breath,  sweeping 
away  man  like  beast."  But  not  despair  but  uplifting  hope 
is  the  response  to  this  humble  confession.  In  spite  of  his 
lowliness,  or,  perhaps,  because  of  this  sense  of  his  own 
insufficiency,  man  rises  to  God's  glorious  heights  and 
brings  back  the  assurance  of  his  own  God-like  nature.  In 
jubilant  strains  the  worshiping  soul  breaks  forth,  "  And 
still  Thou  hast  distinguished  man  from  the  very  begin- 
ning, and  hast  destined  him  to  stand  before  Thee,  and 
recognize  in  Thee  the  ideal  which  he  must  reproduce  and 
realize  in  himself!"  Thus  the  sense  of  his  meekness,  his 
deep-felt  humility  before  God  lifts  man  to  the  dignity  of 
his  priestly  mission,  consecrates  him  to  the  service  of 
humanity.  Oh,  how  the  dark  clouds  of  passion,  of 
envy,  selfishness  and  greed  vanish  before  this  brilliant 
in^age  of  m^n's  true  mission ! 


64  SIN   AND   FORGIVENESS. 

And,  finally,  the  fact  must  be  stated  that  humility 
alone  can  vest  with  true  value  our  works  of  charity. 
The  proud  man  may  give  of  his  means  to  the  poor,  the 
humble  heart  alone  helps  the  needy.  Overflowing  wealth 
may  throw  a  few  crumbs  from  the  table  of  affluence, 
but  meekness  alone  puts  the  tear  of  tenderness  in  our 
eye  and  makes  of  us  messengers  of  divine  compassion 
and  mercy.  Humility  will  constantly  remind  us  of  the 
time  of  our  own  poverty  and  need,  and  thus  will  temper 
into  sweetness  and  amiability  the  harshness  and  heart- 
lessness  of  private  or  corporate  almsgiving.  We  must 
remember,  too,  that  by  giving  to  the  poor,  or  contributing 
toward  the  maintenance  of  our  philanthropic  works  we 
do  nothing  more  than  an  act  of  justice,  not  ot  grace ; 
that  we  only  pay  back  to  mankind  in  another  form 
what  we  have  received  from  humanity.  Wealth,  wis- 
dom and  power  are  products  not  of  the  individual  but 
of  the  common  life  of  all  men.  Therefore,  the  poor, 
the  weak  and  the  ignorant  have  a  claim  upon  those  who 
have  been  benefited  by  the  common  labor,  the  common 
sufferings,  the  common  sacrifices  of  all.  Charity  given 
in  this  spirit  is  righteousness.  Such  charity  is  the  mark 
of  true  religion,  because  a  child  of  true  humility;  it  is 
the  essence  of  Israel's  faith,  as  stated  by  the  prophet: 
What  does  God  require  of  thee  but  to  do  justice,  love 
mercy  and  walk  humbly  with  thy  God? 

This  thought  is  especially  appropriate  at  this  hour, 
when,  according  to  the  beautiful  custom  of  the  Jewish 
community  of  this  city,  the  annual  collection  for  the 
United  Hebrew  Relief  Association  will  be  taken  up.  I 
have  been  requested  to  bespeak  your  generosity.  Twice 
the  amount  collected  during  the  last  year  is  needed 
for  this  year's  work.  Our  numbers  have  increased 
and  our  poor  have  grown  with  us,  our  means  have 
increased,   but  our   hearts   have   not    grown  richer  and 


SiN   AND   FORGIVENESS.  65 

deeper  in  mercy  with  the  needy.  It  is  simply  a  matter 
of  justice  and  right  if  in  the  name  of  religion  we  ask 
you  to  double  your  contribution  this  year.  Whether 
these  words  will  have  any  influence  upon  you  or  whether 
they  will  remain  but  empty  sound,  the  result  of  this 
hour  will  show.  I  have  done  my  duty;  now  you 
must  do  yours. 

But  if,  as  I  trust,  I  shall  not  have  spoken  in  vain,  it  will 
be  to  me  a  blessed  sign  that,  not  only  in  this  particular 
respect,  but  in  all  my  teachings  and  exhortations,  I  have 
found  the  way  to  your  hearts,  and  with  the  prophet  of  old 
have  east  into  the  fountain  of  your  life  the  healing  and 
preserving  salt  of  true  religion.  Yea,  take  this  HTI^X 
n^in  this  new  form  of  the  ancient  legend,  and  apply  its 
truth  to  all  issues  and  conflicts  of  life.  In  your  trials 
and  temptations,  in  your  failings  and  in  your  victories, 
may  there  never  be  wanting  the  healing  elements  of 
humility,  meekness  and  modesty;  then  will  the  spring 
of  your  existence  be  cured  of  the  impurities  of  outward 
influences  and  of  death-breeding  germs  of  an  evil  and 
vicious  temper ;  then  will  our  prayers  be  answered, 
and  in  the  sanctuary  of  our  soul  we  will  hear  the  echo 
of  the  divine  assurance,  "  I  have  forgiven  according  to 
thy  word."  By  thy  own  strength,  thou  art  reconciled 
unto  thyself,   thy   fellow-men  and   thy   God.     Amen. 


SIN  AND  PENITENCE. 


BY    RABBI    STEPHEN    S.    WISE. 


Text,  Psalm  li. 
The  story  is  told  of  Voltaire,  that  he  set  out  to 
parody  and  burlesque  this  psalm,  which  we  have  read, 
a  psalm  sung  by  David,  after  Nathan  had  pointed  out 
to  him  his  iniquity  by  means  of  the  touching  parable 
and  the  dramatic  application,  cited  in  the  Book  of 
Samuel.  In  order  to  acquaint  himself  with  its  spirit, 
he  read  it  over  and  over  again.  While  doing  so,  a  reli- 
able historian  relates,  Voltaire  became  so  oppressed  and 
overawed  by  the  solemn  devotional  tone,  that  he  threw 
down  the  pen  and  fell  back  half  senseless  on  his  couch 
in  an  agony  of  remorse.  Aiming  to  ridicule  David's 
conception  of  a  "  broken  and  contrite  heart,"  he  had  not 
finished  his  reading,  ere,  overcome  with  a  sense  of 
shame  and  guilt,  he  fell  down  "  broken  of  heart."  "  A 
broken  and  contrite  heart " ;  Jean  Paul  has  said,  "  Man 
is  never  so  beautiful  as  when  he  begs  pardon,  and 
when  his  heart  is  penitent  and  contrite."  How  beaute- 
ous and  welcome  a  sight  must  we  present  unto  our 
Father  in  Heaven,  as  He,  looking  upon  us  and  within 
us,  beholds  our  hearts  throbbing  with  but  a  single 
hope,  our  spirits  swayed  by  but  one  wish, — to  obtain 
His  pardon.  God  hath  said,  "  I  pardon  according  to  thy 
word."  Let  our  contrite  heart  speak  the  word :  God 
will  forgive. 

(66) 


SIN  AND  PENITENCE.  67 

We  ought  to  feel  to-night  that  this  is  a  season  of  actual 
atonement,  this  is  the  one  holy  day  of  the  year,  whose 
meaning  we  may  entirely  grasp.  In  the  end,  the  New 
Year's  day  is  an  abstraction;  it  is  an  imaginary  line, 
separating  two  worlds  of  time,  as  little  real  as  the  distant 
horizon,  which  looks  to  be  the  meeting-place  of  earth 
and  sky.  Similarly,  it  may  be  said  of  the  approaching 
"  Feast  of  Booths,"  that  though  it  be  our  duty  to 
carry  out  the  observance  of  this  festival,  according  to 
the  rules  laid  down  in  the  Bible,  we  are  simply  main- 
taining a  custom  suited  to  another,  long  past,  greatly 
different  age.  The  Sukkoth  aimed  from  the  first  to 
be  a  season,  when  the  tillers  of  the  field  might,  in 
token  of  their  thankfulness  to  the  Giver  of  all  gifts, 
bring  a  tithe  of  their  fruits  and  flowers  to  the  house 
of  the  Lord.  The  second,  the  later  element  of  the 
Sukkoth  appeals  to  us  with  still  less  force  than  the 
former,  for  even  those,  who  in  the  present  time,  piously 
and  complacently  leave  their  handsome  mansions  to 
dwell  for  a  whole  week  in  a  little  hut,  think  not  of  the 
years  in  which  a  smaller  and  meaner  hovel  was  their 
sole  home,  but  obey  the  law,  which  calls  for  this  deed, 
in  a  half-hearted  impersonal  way,  as  though  Israel  had 
never  had  recourse  to  tents  since  the  march  through 
the  wilderness.  The  Passover  is  a  great  national  feast, 
calling  to  our  mind  that  series  of  wondrous  events, 
which  resulted  in  the  freeing  of  the  children  of  Israel 
from  the  old  slave  shackles.  We  may  cordially  cherish 
Israel's  festival  of  freedom,  nevertheless,  it  is  only  from 
the  standpoint  of  those  who  are  so  wholly  free  as  to  be 
unable  to  realize  the  significance  of  bondage.  In  the 
same  way,  we  dutifully  remember  and  keep  the  Day  of 
Revelation  on  which,  in  addition  to  being,  like  the  Suk- 
koth, a  festival  for  husbandmen,  the  To  rah  was  first 
given   to   Israel ;     but    three  thousand  years  of   secure 


68  &TN   AND   PENITENCfi. 

porfricssion  naturally  render  men  heedless  of  the  choic- 
est treasures.  Loyalty  to  our  past  and  love  for  its 
heroes  may  lead  us  to  a  cheerful  regard  for  Chanukah 
and  Purim,  severally  marking  as  they  do  the  triumph 
of  Israel  over  Israel's  foes.  We  may  wax  enthusiastic 
over  the  account  of  the  recklessness  displayed  hy  the 
Maccabees  in  defense  of  their  land  or  the  unflinching 
manliness  of  the  Persian  Jews  when  their  existence  was 
imperilled.  At  the  same  time  we  are  but  witnesses, 
dumb  hearers.  Our  attitude  to  these  holy  days  is 
purely  objective.  We  merely  review  and  applaud,  we 
admire  and  commemorate — we  do  not  act.  Therein 
this  day  differs  from  all  other  days.  The  Atonement 
Day  has  no  victory  to  recount,  no  triumph  to  recall. 
It  is  a  day  for  you  and  for  me,  for  us  and  for  God ; 
it  is  a  day  for  the  individual,  it  is  a  day  for  the  pres- 
ent. We  have  the  making  of  it  in  our  own  hands, 
we  are  to  determine  what  it  shall  be.  We  come  to 
God  unconditionally  "  with  a  broken  and  contrite  heart," 
not  to  parley  or  to  treat  with  Him,  but  relying  on  His 
never-failing  mercy,  to  throw  ourselves  at  His  feet,  to 
leave  our  past  in  His  hands,  to  entrust  our  future  to 
His  care.  "  The  sacrifices  of  God  are  a  broken  spirit" — 
this  offering  He  will  gladly  accept  from  us.  He  hath 
said  it,  in  the  words  spoken  through  His  messenger 
Isaiah.  ' '  0  Israel,  thou  shalt  not  be  forgotten  of  me. 
I  have  blotted  out  as  a  vapor  thy  transgressions,  and 
as  a  cloud  thy  sins  :  return  unto  me  ;  for  I  have  re- 
deemed thee." 

"  Israel  thou  shalt  not  be  forgotten  of  me, " — the 
very  words  we  have  come  to  hear  this  night,  words 
more  dear  and  welcome  than  the  tidings  of  the 
greatest  fortune,  "Sweeter  than  the  honey  and  the 
honeycomb."  Israel,  with  all  thy  short-comings  and 
despite  thy  sinfulness,  thou  shalt    not  be   forgotten   of 


SIN   AND   PENITENCE.  69 

me.  The  world  may  deny  thee  shelter,  I  have  room 
for  thee :  thou  mayest  reject  and  scorn  thyself,  I 
accept  and  pity  thee.  It  is  the  cry  of  a  father 
who  loves  his  children  most,  when  they  least  de- 
serve his  love.  The  daintiest  flower,  once  plucked 
from  its  parent  stem,  must  die;  naught  can  save  it 
to  life.  We  tear  ourselves  away  from  our  Heavenly 
Father,  flee  from  Him  and  avoid  Him;  to-night  we 
creep  back  within  the  cover  of  the  old  home,— no 
reproaches,  no  rebukes,  no  threat,  no  punishment, 
no  question,  no  anger,  await  and  appall  us.  The 
doors  are  open :  we,  who  may  have  been  morally 
dead,  are  summoned  to  life  in  the  words,  "  Thou 
shalt  not  be  forgotten  of  me,  O  Israel. ' '  The  author 
of  one  of  the  best  works  of  fiction,  written  in  recent 
years,  develops  this  idea  very  happily.  He  portrays 
the  inner  struggles  and  soul-conflicts  of  a  man  who 
has  committed  a  frightful  sin.  He  is  arraigned  before 
the  law  of  the  land  and  convicted  of  the  crime 
with  which  he  is  charged.  Later  he  is  released,  and 
another,  who  is  adjudged  guilty,  is  doomed  to  finish 
the  prison-term  which  the  former  had  been  sentenced 
to  serve.  But  the  matter  is  far  from  ended.  For 
now  he  must  face  another  Judge.  The  workings  of 
his  spirit,  the  writer  skilfully  shows  to  result  in  his 
making  an  absolute  confession,  because  he  knows 
that  God  will  not  desert  him  and  that  His  grace 
will  save  him.  Friends,  thus  might  we  hold  up  our 
heads  in  brazen-faced  hypocrisy,  for  you  do  not 
know  of  my  secret  sins,  nor  can  I  gather  the  story 
of  your  concealed  errors.  There  is  no  inquisitor 
with  rack  and  thumbscrew  to  torture  us  into  con- 
fession. But  this  night,  when  to  our  sin-stained 
souls  there  comes  the  word  of  God,  "Thou  shalt 
not  be  forgotten  of    me, "    "  Though  your  sins   be  as 


70  SIN   AND   PENITENCE. 

scarlet,  they  shall  be  white  as  snow ;  though  they 
be  red  like  crimson,  they  shall  be  as  wool, "  every 
unrighteous  resolve  hies  itself  away,  the  desire  to 
appear  guiltless  before  the  eyes  of  the  Lord  disap- 
pears, the  heart  that  was  grimly  stern  and  hard-set 
becomes  softened.  '•  A  broken  and  contrite  heart " 
is  the  sacrifice  we  can  no  longer  withhold  from 
Him,  dazzled  as  we  are  by  the  glory  of  God's  great 
goodness. 

"  0  Israel,  thou  shalt  not  be  forgotten  of  me. " 
To  all  of  us,  this  is  joyous  news,  causing  us  to  face 
the  future  without  fear  or  misgivings.  "  0  Israel, 
thou  shalt  not  be  forgotten  of  me.  "  Upon  hearing 
this,  a  murmur  of  doubt  and  dissent  rises  to  our  lips, 
which  dies  ere  it  is  born.  For  it  seems  to  be  be- 
lied by  the  experience  of  the  past.  "  Israel  shall 
not  be  forgotten  by  me. "  Your  innermost  thoughts 
are  disclosed  to  me.  You  are  asking  yourselves 
— how  else  shall  we  explain  the  evil  that  has  be- 
fallen us?  God  must  have  forgotten  us,  or  else  we 
would  not  appear  before  him  to-night  robed  in  the 
sable  drapery  of  woe.  God-forgotten  and  God-for- 
saken were  we,  or  else  He  would  have  heard  our 
prayers  and  spared  to  us  the  dear  life,  whose  un- 
timely end  we  deeply  deplore.  "Thou  shalt  not  be 
forgotten  of  me. "  Surely  God  is  not  taunting  us 
that  during  the  past  year  He  remembered  us  only 
with  sorrow  and  suffering.  "Thou  shalt  not  be  for- 
gotten by  me,  0  Israel, ' '  reminds  us  all  of  the 
occasions  during  the  past  year  when  in  the  throes 
of  agony  and  the  depths  of  despair  we  cried,  "  0 
God,  why  dost  Thou  forget  us? "  On  this  night  of 
nights,  thrilled  with  ^.a  hope  of  perfect^  pardon,  we 
turn  about  as  it  were  to  exchange  confidences,  to 
tell    each    other    of  the    new-born    joy — the    other    is 


SIN    AND    PENITENCE.  71 

gone.  Wife  weeps  for  him  who  at  this  moment  is 
standing  before  the  Heavenly  throne,  and  she  prays, 
''  God  have  mercy  upon  him !  Reward  him  for  all 
his  goodness  and  his  love  and  his  devotion.  Bless 
me  by  pitying  him. "  Some  of  you  strong  men,  seated 
before  me,  are  weak,  this  night.  Your  faith  is  not 
sure,  and  the  voice,  which  might  have  allayed  every 
anxiety,  is  hushed  and  still.  Yet,  do  you  not  hear 
seraph-tones  from  afar,  pleading  with  you,  "  Loved 
one,  have  patience :  bear  with  Him  who  has  borne 
with  you."  Parents  petition  that  the  words  "Thou 
art  not  forgotten  by  me, "  may  be  true  for  the  sake 
of  some  little  one.  This  is  their  only  comfort :  "  Far 
from  us,  may  our  child  be  near  to  God.  Having 
parted  with  earthly  parents,  may  it  be  united  to  its 
Heavenly  Father.  Having  forsaken  vis,  may  it  not  be 
forgotten  of  the  Lord ! "  The  prayers  of  some  chil- 
dren to-night  are  strangely  solemn,  for  at  God's  right 
hand  standeth  the  absent  father,  whose  humble  pe- 
titioning will  be  mingled  with  the  grief-begotten  en- 
treaty of  his  children.  For  some  of  us.  Heaven  and 
the  hereafter  have  ever  been  a  will-o'-the-wisp:  they 
are  realities,  now  that  they  enshrine  a  new  angel, 
the  mother,  whose  gentle  and  kindly  glance  as  of 
yore  would  bid  us  refrain  from  all  complaint  and 
make  peace  with  our  God.  Thus  it  is  not  to-night 
alone  that  we  offer  unto  the  Lord  the  gift  of  "a 
heart  that  is  bowed  and  broken.  "  In  the  few  years 
of  my  pastorate,  I  have  seen  many  homes  ravaged 
and  many  hearths  shaken  to  their  very  center.  But 
to-night  in  response  to  our  offering,  the  gladsome 
message  peals  forth,  "  Thou  art  not  forgotten  by 
me."  Verily,  he  who  can  forgive  will  not  forget  nor 
forsake,   will  not  abandon   our  souls  to   death. 

God  saith  more    than    "  Thou    art  not  forgotten  by 


72  SIN    AND   PENITENCE. 

me."  He  supplements  the  simple  promise  with  the 
ampler  assurance,  "  I  have  blotted  out  as  a  vapor  thy 
transgressions,  and  as  a  cloud  thy  sins."  A  moment's 
earnest  consideration  of  this  utterance  will  impart  to 
us  perhaps  the  most  valuable  lesson  to  be  drawn  from 
the  belief  in  the  principle  of  atonement.  God  speaketh, 
"  I  will  blot  out  as  a  vapor  thy  transgressions,  and  as  a 
cloud  thy  sins."  Let  me  ask  you,  can  vapor  and  clouds 
be  blotted  out?  The  first  and  simplest  law  of  na- 
ture treats  of  the  "  conservation  of  energy,"  which  means 
that  in  the  household  of  nature  no  power  is  wasted,  no 
forces  are  destroyed.  To  what,  then,  can  God  refer  in 
saying.  "  I  have  blotted  out  as  a  vapor  thy  transgres- 
sions, and  as  a  cloud  thy  sins  ? "  A  vapor  may  be 
scattered,  the  clouds  dissipated,  but  blotted  out,  never; 
their  inevitable  end  is  to  descend  to  earth  in  the  form 
of  rain  or  snow  or  mist  or  hail.  Thus  God  blots  out  our 
sins  and  transgressions.  He  forgives  us,  not  really  de- 
claring our  sins  void  of  effect,  but  simply  blotted  out. 
We  may  be  cleared  of  them,  still  they  exist.  Earth 
and  dust  are  none  the  less  earth  and  dust  after  the 
precious  metal  has  been  extracted  out  of  the  rough  ore. 
In  truth,  in  the  very  first  instance  where  God  is  de- 
scribed by  Moses  as  "  Gracious,  Merciful  and  Pardon- 
ing," we  also  find  the  expression,  "  Visiting  the  iniquity 
of  the  fathers  upon  the  children  and  upon  the  chil- 
dren's children  unto  the  third  and  to  the  fourth  gener- 
ation." This  idea  ought  to  be  the  means  of  making  us 
more  truly  penitent.  Has  it  ever  occurred  to  you  that 
the  word  penitent  is  derived  from  the  Latin  poeria, 
meaning  pain,  punishment?  Pain,  punishment,  are  the 
preliminary  requisites  to  penitence.  These  lend  earn- 
estness to  our  repentance,  and  sincerity  to  our  contrite- 
ness.  As  we  reflect  that  the  evil  we  do  lives  after  us, 
the  thought,  that  our  sins   are  not  to   be  blotted    out, 


SIN   AND   PENITENCE.  73 

will  make  us  pause.  It  will  spur  on  the  "broken  and 
contrite  heart "  to  sin  no  more.  As  we  consider  that 
the  sins  we  commit  perpetuate  themselves  in  many 
ways  (and  according  to  modern  science  nothing  is  more 
definitely  proven),  we  do  resolve  to  return  to  God, 
worthy  of  His  love  and  deserving  of  His  confidence. 
Thus  ours  become  "a  broken  and  contrite  heart," 
which  God  raises  from  the  black  earth  of  tears  and  ter- 
rors and  lifts  to  the  blue  sky  of  tender  trust  and  firm 
faith  with  the  words,  "Israel,  thou  art  not  forgotten  by 
me ;  I  will  blot  out  as  a  vapor  thy  transgressions,  and 
as  a  cloud  thy  sins ;  return  unto  me,  for  I  have  redeemed 
thee."     Amen. 


A  DEFINITION  OF  JUDAISM. 


MORNING   SERMON   FOR   THE   DAY   OF   ATONEMENT, 
BY   RABBI   I.   S.    MOSES. 


Text:  Deut.  x,  12. 
It  is  with  considerable  misgiving  that  I  approach 
the  subject  of  my  discourse  this  morning.  I  desire  to 
speak  of  Judaism,  its  nature,  the  reasons  we  have  for 
maintaining  it.  What  is  Judaism?  What  are  its  re- 
quirements? What  our  duties  to  it?  Is  there  a  more 
befitting  theme  for  us  to  discuss  on  the  Day  of  Atone- 
ment than  this?  And  yet  I  fear  that  I  am  somewhat 
out  of  touch  with  my  audience  in  selecting  Judaism 
for  a  subject.  I  am  well  aware  of  the  fact  that  with 
Jews  Judaism  is  not  a  fashionable  subject.  They  are 
not  over-fond  of  the  name  "Jew."  They  are  not  given 
to  discussing  religious  topics,  least  of  all  one  which 
concerns  them  most.  Nor  do  they  require  or  expect 
the  minister  in  their  pulpit  to  call  their  attention  to 
the  stern,  inevitable,  and,  withal,  not  altogether  pleasant 
fact  of  their  being  Jews.  Still,  if  I  rightly  understand 
my  position  and  the  name  of  my  office,  to  be  a  rabbi 
in  Israel,  I  feel  it  my  bounden  duty  to  at  least  once  a 
year,  when  I  have  the  pleasure  of  seeing  you  all  before 
me,  bring  near  to  your  hearts  the  reasons  why  we 
should  remain  faithful  and  loyal  to  the  religion  which 
we  call  Judaism. 

(74) 


A   DEFINITION    OF  JUDAISM.  75 

It  is  not  a  very  pleasant  experience  to  be  told,  often 
with  a  sneer,  that  no  one  exactly  knows  what  Judaism 
is.  The  term  is  surrounded  by  a  haze,  an  indefinite- 
ness,  that  puzzles  even  the  scholars  and  the  students  of 
religion,  if  required  to  define  with  exactness  the  line  of 
demarcation  that  divides  off  Jew  from  non-Jew.  Were 
we  to  ask  the  large  majority  of  the  civilized  world, 
the  preachers,  teachers  and  professors  of  the  creed  by 
which  we  are  surrounded,  what  Judaism  is,  the  answer 
would  not  long  be  wanting.  "Judaism,"  they  would 
say,  "is  the  religion  of  the  Old  Testament :  Christianity 
that  of  the  New.  Judaism  is  the  old  dispensation; 
Christianity  is  the  new  covenant.  Judaism  is  the  re- 
ligion of  law  and  ceremonies:  Christianity  is  the 
religion  of  love.  The  Jew  believes  in  the  Great  Jeho- 
vah, the  awful,  angry  God,  who  revealed  Himself 
amidst  the  thunder  and  lightning  of  Sinai,  and  gave 
to  the  people  of  Israel  a  number  of  laws,  promising 
His  protection  as  long  as  they  would  keep  these  laws, 
and  threatening  dire  vengeance  and  destruction  if  they 
should  venture  to  abandon  or  to  change  them.  These 
laws,"  they  will  tell  us,  "were  only  tentative,  they 
were  meant  as  an  education  of  the  people  for  a  higher 
stage;  they  were  only  a  preparation  for  a  faith  that 
was  to  come.  It  was  a  torch  that  should  guide  in 
the  wilderness  until  the  larger  light  would  arise  to  il- 
lumine the  world." 

Judaism,  then,  was  only  a  preparation  for  Chris- 
tianity. This  having  come,  the  old  dispensation  was 
made  superfluous  and  ought  to  have  vanished  1800 
years  ago.  All  of  it  which  has  not  disappeared  is 
merely  a  survival,  not  of  the  fittest,  rather  the  unfit- 
test,  form  of  religion.  It  clings  to  the  poor,  mis- 
guided, self-deluded  Jews  like  a  hereditary  disease. 
It  follows  them   from  land    to  land,    and  from   nation 


76  A    DEFINITION    OF   JUDAISM. 

to  nation.  It  singles  them  out  as  belonging  to  a  pe- 
culiar people.  It  makes  them  exclusive,  narrow  and, 
to  a  certain  extent,  proud  of  their  past,  and  disables 
them  from  amalgamating  with,  and  assimilating  the 
larger  religious  life  that  is  moving  all  about  them. 
Judaism  is  an  anachronism  ;  it  is  out  of  date  and 
place  in  the  modern  intellectual  world.  Strenuous  ef- 
forts have  been  made,  and  are  continually  made,  to 
persuade  the  Jew  to  give  up  his  old-fashioned,  worn- 
out  kind  of  religion.  That  he  is  unwilling  to  do  so, 
and,  despite  the  disadvantages  it  brings  to  him,  de- 
spite prejudice  and  persecution  that  it  draws  upon 
him,  he  still  continues  to  cling  to  his  time-beaten  form 
of  faith,  is  evidence  of  something  more  than  obstinacy 
and  stubbornness  on  his  part.  As  a  class  the  Jews, 
both  by  heredity  and  by  training,  are  mentally  alert, 
quick  to  see  the  fallacy  of  a  position  that  cannot 
stand  the  test  of  reason,  and  are  not  easily  held  in 
mental  or  spiritual  subjection.  If,  therefore,  the  Jew 
persists  in  holding  fast  to  a  religious  system  which 
is  declared  to  be  superceded  by  a  new  dispensation, 
he  must  have  cogent  reasons  for  doing  so.  These 
may  not  be  always  clear  to  his  consciousness;  they 
may  he  latent,  dormant  in  his  mind,  or  cluster  around 
his  affections  and  emotions.  It  ought,  therefore,  to  be 
of  the  utmost  importance  to  us  to  make  clear  to  our- 
selves  these   reasons   for   our  adherence   to    Judaism. 

Were  we  to  ask  a  number  of  Israelites  to  give  us 
a  definition  of  their  faith,  we  would  receive  as  many 
different  answers  as  there  were  persons  to  whom  the 
query  was  addressed.  Let  us  ask  a  staunch  orthodox 
Jew  to  tell  us  what  his  Judaism  is.  If  he  does  not 
belong  to  the  ignorant,  uncultured  class — he  will  tell  us, 
that  Judaism  is  the  covenant  of  God  with  Israel,  made 
first  with  Abraham,  repeated  with  Isaac,  confirmed  with 


A   DlSf'lNITiON   OF  JUDAISM.  ?? 

Jacob  and  completed  on  Mount  yinai;  that  the  Torali, 
or  the  law  of  Moses,  is  the  unchanging  and  unchange- 
able constitution  of  •  the  Hebrew  people;  that  on  the 
basis  of  it  they  built  up  a  commonwealth,  established 
themselves  in  a  land  of  their  own,  with  judges,  kings 
and  prophets,  with  a  consecrated  priesthood  and  a 
national  sanctuary ;  that  all  subsequent  literature  was 
simply  an  amplification  of  the  Mosaic  code,  that  the 
laws  and  enactments  of  the  rabbis  as  laid  down  in 
the  Talmud  and  the  later  casuistic  literature,  are  the 
outflow  of  the  Mosaic  spirit,  and  are  binding  on  all 
Israel,  and  that  to  deny  or  neglect  them  implies  denial 
or  rejection  of  Judaism.  Through  the  destruction  of 
the  Temple  and  the  collapse  of  the  State,  Israel's  poli- 
tical life  has  not  been  annihilated;  it  is  only  in  sus- 
pense, and  will,  at  the  gracious  time  known  by  God, 
be  revived  in  its  pristine  beauty  and  glory.  The 
Messiah,  the  son  of  David,  will  lead  the  dispersed  of 
Judah  back  to  their  country,  and  re-establish  the  king- 
dom of  Israel  on  Palestine's  soil.  I  shall  not  indulge, 
however  tempting  the  opportunity,  in  argument  to 
refute  this   position. 

For  me  Judaism  is  not  a  polity,  but  a  faith,  not  a 
contract  or  covenant,  but  a  living  inspiration,  not  a 
survival  or  tradition,  but  a  development  and  continual 
growth  of  an  original  thought.  However  misunder- 
stood by  the  outside  world,  however  caricatured  by 
many  within  the  fold — Judaism  is  neither  stepping- 
stone  or  foil  for  Christianity,  nor  is  it  racial  distinctive- 
ness and  national  pride,  clustering  around  bygone 
glories  and  shattered  dynasties.  Judaism  is  a  spiritual  j 
force,  a  moral  movement,  a  social  mission.  It  came  into  f 
this  world  not  as  an  invention  of  priests,  not  as  a 
policy  of  kings,  but  as  a  moral  guide,  a  spiritual 
illumination. 


78  A   DEJ^INITION  of  JUDAISM. 

The  difiiculty  in  understanding  and  defining  Juda- 
ism does  not  lie  in  any  mystery  inconceivable  and 
unfathomable,  but  in  its  very  simplicity.  Because^ 
Judaism  is  a  growth,  and  not  an  invention,  because) 
it  is  life,  and  not  theory,  it  requires  a  different  meas-| 
urement  than  dogmatic  faiths  sprung  upon  the  world  \ 
to  meet  a  temporary  need.  We  need  not  go  far  in 
search  of  a  definition  of  Judaism.  The  Master-Builder 
who  erected  the  magnificent  system  of  Israel's  reli- 
gion, has  given  us  also  the  key  wherewith  to  open  the 
portals  and  to  enter  the  sanctuary.  Listen  to  the 
words  of  the  Great  Teacher,  the  foremost  of  all 
prophets,  and  you  will  receive  the  desired  informa- 
tion, 

"And  now,  O  Israel,  what  doth  the  Lord 
require  of  thee,  but  to  fear  the  Lord,  thy  God, 
to  walk  in  His  ways ;  and  to  love  Him,  and  to 
serve  Him   with  all  thy  heart  and  all  thy  soul." 

These  are  the  elements  of  true  religion,  these  the 
essential  requirements  of  Judaism.  To  know  a  reli- 
gion we  must  examine  the  three  great  divisions  of 
which  it  is  composed  and  which  have  here  been  indi- 
cated :  Reverence,  Love  and  Service.  We  may  translate 
these  theological  designations  into  terms  with  which 
the  modern  thinker  is  more  familiar :  Philosophy,^ 
Ethics  and  Humanity. 

As  to  the  philosophy  of  Judaism,  it  is  contained  in 
its  God-idea,  in  its  spiritual  attitude  to  the  universe. 
The  charge  that  is  often  made  by  Christian  think- 
ers against  Jewish  theology  is  that  of  its  extreme  pov- 
erty and  fewness  of  thoughts.  With  some  ancient 
Greek  philosophers  modern  theologians  assert,  that  the 
Jewish  mind  was  unable  to  rise  above  the  thought  of 
one  God.  The  Aryan  mind  was  more  prolific,  and 
peopled  the  heavens  with  armies  of  deities,     Christian- 


A  DEFINiTtON   OF  JUDAISM.  79 

ity^reducedithem  to  a  trinity.  It  fructified  and  deep- 
ened the  barren  monotheism  of  the  Jews  by  bringing 
God  in  human  shape  nearer  to  the  heart  of  man.  And 
yet,  whoever  follows  the  currents  of  thouglit  as  they 
flow  through  history,  whoever  watches  the  intellectual 
struggles  of  to-day,  cannot  fail  to  notice  that  the  battle 
of  modern  theology  rages  around  those  very  doctrines 
that  are  so  proudly  placed  in  opposition  to  the  Jew- 
ish thought;  that  despite  the  alleged  closer  kinship 
wdth  human  nature,  the  dogmas  of  the  trinity,  the  in- 
carnate God,  the  vicarious  atonement,  are  more  and 
more  abandoned  by  the  intellectual  portion  of  Chris- 
tianity, and  that  the  highest  Christian  thought  as  rep- 
resented by  its  great  thinkers,  poets  and  writers,  runs  in 
the  direction  of  Hebrew  monotheism.  The  literature 
of  to-day  in  the  lands  of  modern  civilization,  in  Ger- 
many, France,  England,  America,  betrays  but  feeble 
affinity  to  trinitarian  theology.  It  is  saturated  with  the 
Hebrew  conception  of  the  One  God,  who  is  Father  of 
all  men.  And  to-day  science  comes  to  corroborate  this 
ancient  view.  There  is  no  room  in  this  universe  for 
more  than  one  spiritual  force.  Unity  is  the  principle 
underlying  the  whole  cosmic  order :  unity  the  purpose 
of  all  human  development.  "If  I  were  asked,"  says 
Zangwill  in  his  famous  essay  on  the  "  Position  of  Juda- 
ism," "  If  I  were  asked  to  sum  up  in  one  broad 
generalization  the  intellectual  tendency  of  Israel,  I  should 
say  that  it  was  a  tendency  to  unification.  The  unity 
of  God,  which  is  the  declaration  of  the  dying  Israelite, 
is  but  the  theological  expression  of  this  tendency.  The 
Jewish  mind  runs  to  unity  by  an  instinct  as  harmoni- 
ous as  the  Greek's  sense  of  art.  It  is  always  impelled 
to  a  synthetic  perception  of  the  whole.  This  is 
Israel's  contribution  to  the  world,  his  vision  of  exist- 
ence.   There  is  one  God  who  unifies  the  cosmos,  and 


80  A   DEFINITION   OF   JUDAISM. 

one  people  to  reveal  Him,  and  one  creed  to  which 
all  the  world  will  come.  In  science  the  Jewish  in- 
stinct, expressing  itself,  for  example,  through  Spinoza, 
who  seeks  '  for  One  God,  one  Law,  one  Element : '  in 
sesthetics  it  identifies  the  true  and  the  beautiful  with 
the  good;  in  politics  it  will  not  divide  the  Church 
from  State,  nor  secular  history  from  religious:  for 
Israel's  national  joys  and  sorrows  are  at  once  incor- 
porated in  his  religion,  giving  rise  to  feasts  and  fasts  ; 
in  ethics  it  will  not  sunder  soul  from  body:  it  will 
not  set  this  life  against  the  next;  this  world  against 
another ;  even  in  theology  it  will  not  altogether  sunder 
God  from  the  humors  of  existence,  from  the  comedy 
which  leavens  the  creation.  Uyiitas,  unitas,  omnia  unitas." 
Will  the  world  ever  outgrow  this  conception  of 
God?  Or  will  science  substitute  for  it  an  imper- 
sonal, unconscious  force  guiding  and  directing  the 
life  and  destiny  of  man?  As  the  human  mind  is 
constituted,  we  can  conceive  of  no  higher  view  of 
the  principle  of  cause  and  efiect  than  the  Jewish 
postulate :  One  God,  the  Creator  of  all.  Before  this 
God  of  the  universe  the  mind  bends  in  adoration, 
for  it  feels  its  kinship  with  Him.  It  knows  itself 
to  be  a  part  of  this  great  life  of  God.  For  this 
God,  so  Judaism  teaches,  is  not  an  abstraction 
dwelling  in  some  remote  part  of  the  universe;  His 
temple  the  human  mind ;  His  sanctuary  the  human 
heart;  His  seat  of  glory  the  soul  of  man.  No  in- 
separable gulf  yawns  between  God  and  man:  God 
the  Creator,  man  the  creature;  God  the  Father,  man 
the  child;  God  the  King  and  Sovereign,  man  the 
subject  and  servant.  "God  dwelling  in  man, "  what 
does  it  mean?  It  means  to  make  man's  life  divine, 
to  lift  from  the  dust  the  lowly,  to  crown  him  prince 
of  creation ;   it  sanctifies  his  life   by   making   it  a  part 


A   DEFINITION   OP  JUDAISM.  81 

of  the  divine  life,  and  thus  blending  dust  with  Deity- 
plant  heaven  on  the  earth.  In  a  word,  God  reveal- 
ing Himself  to  man  in  order  that  man  may  lead  a 
moral  life.  Ethics  is  the  purpose  of  religion — sanctity 
the   outcome   of   the   fear    of  God. 

Every  religion  is  judged  by  its  code  of  ethics. 
Israel  need  not  fear  to  stand  this  test,  for  if  sifted 
to  its  very  root,  Judaism  is  by  its  very  nature  an 
ethical  movement.  It  sprang  into  existence  in  oppo- 
sition to  the  immoral  practices  of  the  religions 
around  it.  The  very  first  call  to  Abraham  and 
the  promise  that  he  shall  be  a  blessing,  is  based 
on  the  assurance  that  he  will  teach  the  way  of 
God  to  his  children  and  to  his  household,  to  do 
justice  and  righteousness.  What  are  the  requirements 
of  true  religion?  asks  the  Psalmist:  "Who  shall 
ascend  the  hill  of  the  Lord,  who  shall  stand  in 
His  holy  place?  He  who  has  clean  hands  and  a 
pure  heart. "  Or  listen  to  the  Prophet's  creed, 
"Wherewith  shall  I  come  before  the  Lord?  bow  my- 
self before  the  Most  High?  He  has  told  thee,  O 
man,  what  is  good,  and  what  God  requires  of  thee : 
to  do  justly,  to  love  virtue,  to  walk  humbly  with  thy 
God.  "  Study  the  history  of  Israel.  The  stages  of  his 
growth  are  the  mile-stones  of  his  moral  development: 
intertwined  and  interwoven  with  his  political  life  is 
the  groAvth  of  his  ethical  ideas.  Even  his  ceremonial 
laws  and  precepts  were  but  symbolical  of  moral  obliga- 
tion. The  morality  of  Judaism  has  often  been  con- 
trasted with  that  of  Christianity  and  declared  to  be 
on  a  lower  level,  and  resting  on  selfish  motives.  If 
there  be  traces  in  the  Old  Testament  and  Talmudic 
teachings  of  a  doctrine  that  makes  reward  the  incen- 
tive of  a  moral  act,  the  whole  life  of  Israel  is  a  refuta- 
tion of  this   charge.     For  a  whole  nation,  during  hun- 


82  A  t)EFiNiTtON  OF  Judaism. 

dreds  of  years,  to  pursue  a  path  of  duty  in  the  face 
of  almost  insurmountable  difficulties,  to  bear  the  perse- 
cution of  the  world  and  suffer  unparalleled  martyrdom, 
does  not  betray  a  selfish  nature  swayed  by  mercenary 
motives.  The  love  of  God  and  the  love  of  virtue  did 
not  bring  to  the  Jew  the  compensation  craved  and 
promised.  For,  let  it  be  remembered  that  the  rewards 
mentioned  in  the  Old  Testament  have  reference  to  this 
life  on  earth  only,  to  temporal  happiness  and  well- 
being,  to  the  permanence  of  national  life:  there  is  no 
allusion  to  celestial  rewards,  to  heavenly  banquets,  en- 
livened by  angelic  music.  Yet  in  the  face  of  facts, 
what  were  the  rewards  of  the  Jew  for  his  faithfulness 
and  his  virtue?  If  he  did  not  crave  heaven,  he  cer- 
tainly did  not  win  the  earth;  the  joys  and  pleasures 
of  the  world  were  not  his  share.  Nor  is  the  charge  of 
inadequate  morality  true  even  if  judged  by  the  cur- 
rent of  his  literature.  The  present  generation  of  high- 
minded  Christians  would  declare  it  a  misstatement  of 
facts  were  their  morality  to  be  judged  by  the  standard 
of  the  New  Testament  only,  or  by  the  practices  of  the 
mediaeval  church.  They  claim  progress,  not  only  in 
thought,  but  also  in  morals.  Does  not  the  same  law 
hold  good  for  us  ?  Has  Israel  not  progressed  ethically 
as  well  as  intellectually  since  the  last  two  thousand 
years?  The  Talmud,  that  oft-maligned  book,  is  full 
of  passages  breathing  the  most  unselfish  morality :  — "Be 
not  like  hired  servants  that  work  for  reward.  Be, 
rather,  like  slaves  that  serve  their  master  without 
thought  of  compensation."  And  another  rabbi  said, — 
"The  reward  of  a  good  deed  is  another  good  deed, 
and  one  virtue  brings  another  in  its  wake :  and  the 
punishment  of  sin  is  sin."  Is  this  not  a  higher  stand- 
ard of  virtue  than  the  leering  glance  toward  a  crown 
in  heaven?     To    do    good   because  God  commanded   it, 


A  DEFINITION  Of  ^xJDAISM.  83 

is  a  nobler  incentive  than  to  do  God's  command  in 
order  to  save  one's  soul.  Whether  the  soul  of  man  is 
immortal  or  not,  is  a  matter  of  theological  speculation 
and  faith :  with  the  Jew  it  never  enters  as  a  motive  of 
morality.  As  God  is  merciful  and  kind  to  His  crea- 
tures out  of  His  infinite  love  and  compassion  for  them, 
so  must  man  fulfil  the  moral  behest  out  of  his  deep 
love  for  God — for  God's  sake  and  not  for  his  own 
sake, — neither  here  nor  hereafter, — shall  man  love  vir- 
tue and  practice  it.  This  theory  of  ethics  has  been 
fully  exemplified  in  the  life  of  Israel.  His  morality 
has  not  been  closed  up  in  a  book  and  read  as  devo- 
tional literature  on  the  Sabbath  Day  while  the  week 
days  testify  to  a  different  system;  but  his  whole  life 
was  permeated  by  the  feeling  of  moral  obligation,  to 
do  the  will  of  his  Heavenly  Father.  That  will  is  a 
righteous,  just  and  holy  one,  which  demands  not  of 
man   anything  that  is   unreasonable,  unjust   or  unholy. 

And  what  is  the  purpose,  the  aim  and  goal  of  this 
morality?  What  the  higher  plan  of  Israel's  holi- 
ness? Does  obedience  to  the  will  of  God  and  carry- 
ing out  His  behests  close  the  circle  of  man's  duties? 
No  one  who  is  acquainted  with  the  history  and  lit- 
erature of  Israel  will  charge  him  with  such  narrow 
view.  As  to  Abraham,  so  to  the  whole  people,  the 
promise  applies — "  I  shall  bless  thee  in  order  that 
thou  shalt  become  a  blessing."  The  moral  life  of 
Israel,  his  entire  ethical  code— yea,  his  whole  his- 
tory,— it  is  a  preparation,  yet  not  a  preparation  for 
Christianity,  but  for  Humanity.  The  way  out  of  Ju- 
daism leads  not  into  any  sectarian  faith,  but  into  a 
larger  life  which  includes  all  men  and  all  faiths. 
And   here  we   strike  the  major  key  of  Israiel's   Mission 

"  Israel,  the  servant  of  God,"  means  "  Israel  the 
servant  of    humanity."     The   theme,   "  The   Mission    of 


t-' 


84  A  DEFINITION  OF  JUDAISM. 

Israel"  has  often  been  derided  and  ridiculed  as  the 
presumption  of  arrogance,  the  vaunt  of  impotence. 
If  it  be  possible  to  represent  to  our  minds  the  his- 
tory of  mankind  without  the  presence  of  Israel  and 
the  contribution  which  this  people  has  made  to  the 
wealth  of  the  world  ;  if  it  be  possible  to  construe  the 
course  of  events  in  a  manner  as  to  leave  out  the 
currents  and  influences  emanating  from  Palestine:  it 
certainly  transcends  human  imagination  to  picture 
the  state  of  society  to-day  depleted  of  the  spiritual 
and  moral  elements  derived  from  the  treasury  of  Is- 
rael's thought.  /  If  the  Jew  had  rendered  to  the 
world  no  other  service  than  to  have  given  it  that 
great  book,  the  Bible,  written  with  his  heart  blood, 
punctuated  with  his  great  national  experiences,  em- 
phasized by  the  soul-hunger  of  his  noblest  sons,  and 
sealed  in  the  dungeon  and  on  the  scaffold  with  the 
last  breath  of  the  dying  martyr— this  alone  would 
entitle  him  to  the  gratitude  of  all  coming  genera- 
tions. But  he  has  done  more.  He  has  given  to 
civilized  nations  two  religions  which  have  become 
sources  of  salvation,  remodeling  their  national  char- 
acter. For  in  this  lies  his  secret  of  strength,  that 
Israel  is  more  than  a  religion,  more  than  a  theologi- 
cal system,  that  it  is  a  social  force,  a  national  cor- 
rective. If  Feuerbach's  dictum  be  true,  that  all 
religion  is  anthropology  (that  is,  the  study  of  man), 
it  is  still  more  so  in  regard  to  Judaism.  It  is  not 
only  anthropology,  it  is  sociology.  It  is  an  at- 
tempt, and  a  successful  attempt,  to  regulate  the 
relation  of  man  to  brother-man,  of  nation  to  nation. 
That  all  men  are  born  equal ;  that  they  stand  on  a 
level  before  God  and  before  the  civil  law;  that  they 
ought  to  have  an  equal  share  and  opportunity  in 
the  field  of  toil;   that  high   and   low,    rich   and    poor, 


A   DEFINITION   OF  JUDAISM.  85 

learned  and  ignorant,  priest  and  layman,  stand  in 
the  closest  inter-relation  and  inter-dependence  with 
one  another,  and  are  equally  accountable  for  their 
actions  before  the  moral  law;  in  a  word,  a  Common 
Humanity, — this  truth  did  not  wait  for  the  eigh- 
teenth century  savants  to  announce  it  to  the  world; 
it  was  the  foundation  of  Israel's  commonwealth,  the 
life  principle  in  Israel's  history.  It  made  possible 
the  survival  of  the  Jewish  people  during  centuries 
of  persecution.  His  very  suffermg  for  the  sake  of 
liberty  of  conscience,  his  frugality,  his  thrift,  his 
commercial  circumspection,  his  inter-nationalism,  his 
freedom  from  theological  bias  and  dogmatic  bicker- 
ing, made  him  a  valuable  instrument  in  the  service 
of  mankind,  enabled  him  everywhere  to  become  the 
teacher  and  the  inspirer  of  a  larger  and  broader 
society  than  existed  around  about  him.  Is  it  mere 
accident  that  during  the  middle  ages,  up  to  within 
recent  time,  the  Jews  were  the  bankers,  the  physi- 
cians and  often  the  statesmen  of  Christian  and  Mo- 
hammedan nations;  that  Jewish  philosophers  in  the 
persons  of  Ibn  Gabirol,  Maimonides,  Spinoza,  Men- 
delsohn, gave  impetus  to  new  thought;  that  Marx 
and  La  Salle,  both  Jews,  were  the  fathers  of  modern 
socialism;  and  that  the  latest  religio-ethical  move- 
ment has  been  inaugurated  by  a  rabbi's  son?  The 
most  powerful  book  of  to-day,  the  latest  addition  to 
sociological  literature,  is  the  product  of  the  Jew, 
Max  Nordau.  This  seems  to  be  the  tendency  and 
the  drift  of  the  Jewish  mind— the  prQ|ilietic  spirit  of 
old  revived  in  the  latest  descendants,  seeking  to 
re-adjust  and  re-arrange  the  distorted  relations  be- 
tween man  and  man.  If  out  of  the  chaos  and  con- 
fusion of  the  present,  there  should  arise  a  new  form 
of  faith  that  shall    offer  to  mankind  the  bread  of  life 


86  A   DEFINITION   OF   JUDAISM. 

and  the  water  of  health,  that  new  faith  will  not  deny 
its  origin;  it  will  bear  in  form  and  features  the 
semblance  of  Israel,  its  parent.  Israel,  the  servant 
of  God,  Israel,  the  servant  of  Humanity,  is  yet  to 
become  the  Messiah  of  mankind,  bringing  the  neAv 
message  of  social  regeneration,  of  moral  re-birth,  of 
spiritual   unity. 

Will  you  now  ask :  What  is  Judaism  ?  Is  it  race  ? 
Is  it  ritual?  Is  it  feast  or  fast?  Is  it  language,  dead 
or  living  ?  Is  it  orthodoxy,  reform  or  radicalism  ? 
Away  with  all  these  petty  distinctions,  these  belittling 
divisions !  Rise  to  the  height  of  prophetic  outlook. 
Judaism  is  Reverence  for  God,  Love  of  Virtue,  Service] 
of  Humanity.  Are  you  ashamed  of  such  a  religion  ? 
Will  you  hold  in  light  esteem  the  name  that  binds  you 
to  such  a  faith?  Shame  on  the  coward  and  the  craven 
that  forsakes  the  flag  which  has  witnessed  these  glor- 
ious battles  in  the  service  of  God  and  man  !  No  more 
precious  heirloom  can  you  bequeath  to  your  children 
and  children's  children  than  this  honorable  name 
"Jew  !  "  Live  up  to  your  faith,  sanctify  by  your  life 
the  name  of  the  God  whom  you  profess  and  who, 
through  you  and  your  history,  has  been  working  for 
the  salvation  of  mankind.  Yea,  help  to  bring  nearer 
the  time  when  the  barriers  will  fall,  and  divisions 
will  be  removed,  when  there  will  be  no  distinction  be- 
tween Jew  and  non-Jew,  but  all  men  be  known  and 
recognized  as  children  of  God,  exclaiming  with  us  the 
inspiring  words  of  our  confession :  "Hear,  O  Israel, 
thy  God  is  my  God,  thy  people  is  my  i)eople.  Hear, 
O  Israel,  the  Eternal  is  our  God,  the  Eternal  is  One.  " 
Amen. 


I  AM  A  HEBREW. 


A     NEILAH     SERMON,    BY    RABBI     LEON     HARRISON. 


Text:  Jonah  i.  8-9. — "Then  said  they  unto  him,  'Tell  us,  we 
pray  thee,  for  whose  cause  this  evil  is  come  upon  us  ? 
What  is  thine  occupation  ?  And  whence  camest  thou  ? 
What  is  thy  country?  And  of  what  people  art  thou?'  And 
he  said  unto  them,  'I  am  a  Hebrew.'" 

Some  words  palpitate  with  life.  Great  sentences  are 
immortal.  A  proverb  may  contain  a  century's  expe- 
rience. A  motto  may  be  the  crystallized  code  of  gen- 
erations. A  battle-cry  may  inflame  armies  with  furious 
valor  and  change  the  map  of  a  continent.  The  tongue 
may  be  a  two-edged  sword.  CatchAVords  have  ere  this 
decided  political  destinies,  made  and  unmade  parties 
and  proved  the  most  potent  weapon  of  controversy. 
Religious  strife  hinges  upon  words,  differences  of 
opinion  are  mainly  verbal.  And  often  by  one  strik- 
ing statement,  by  one  clear-cut  sentence,  curiosity  may 
be  satisfied,  questions  answered,  and  history  symbolized. 
Our  text  is  such  a  summary.  A  series  of  searching 
and  exhaustive  questions  is  answered  in  one  plain  and 
pungent  phrase.  "What  is  thine  occupation  and 
whence  camest  thou  ?  What  is  thy  country  ?  And  of 
what  people  art  thou?  And  he  said  unto  them,  I  am 
a  Hebrew." 

The  speaker,  the  prophet  Jonah,  is  the  most  noto- 
rious character  in  the  Hebrew  Bible.  His  name  has 
become    a    proverb.    His    remarkable    adventures  have 

m 


88  I   AM    A   HEBREW. 

amused  the  sceptic,  alarmed  the  faithful  and  con- 
founded the  theologian.  He  is  the  bug-bear  of  ortho- 
doxy. And  yet  in  spite  of  general  derision,  this  start- 
ling narrative  has  been  embodied  in  the  liturgy  of  our 
holiest  fast.  It  is  read  on  this  day  in  every  synagogue 
throughout  the  world.  Is  it  to  encourage  credulity,  to 
foster  a  belief  in  the  miraculous,  to  force  a  holy  Mun- 
chausen down  our  throats  when  we  assemble  with 
earnest  purpose  to  speak  and  to  hear  the  truth  ?  Or  is 
it  that  our  sages  have  wisely  discerned  in  this  tale,  a 
parable  of  mighty  meaning,  that  concerns  you  and  me 
to-day,  and  shadows  forth  the  tragic  story  of  a  nation's 
pilgrimage  ? 

I  see  in  this  storm- tossed  prophet  amid  the  threaten- 
ing crew,  a  type  of  Israel,  the  wanderer.  He  has  fled  the 
home-land.  He  has  embarked  upon  the  treacherous 
tide.  He  has  committed  himself  into  the  hands  of 
strangers.  His  danger,  his  risk  is  at  least  equal  to  theirs. 
Yet  they  cast  him  out  even  from  that  frail  shell  to 
struggle  in  the  pitiless  waves.  They  charge  him  with 
their  calamities.  They  punish  him  for  their  misfor- 
tunes. And  finally  they  ask  him  those  eternal  ques- 
tions that  have  been  re-echoed  from  age  to  age  and 
from  land  to  land,  to  justify  hatred,  pillage  and  massacre, 
and  to  serve  as  the  sanction  of  inquisitor  and  Czar, 
"  What  is  thine  occupation  ?  And  whence  camest  thou  ? 
What  is  thy  country?  And  of  what  people  art 
thou?"  And  ever  the  answer  is  flung  back  at  them 
with  pain,  perhaps,  and  tears,  but  proudly,  exultantly, 
defiantly,  the  answer  rings  out  through  the  world,  "  I 
am   a   Hebrew." 

For  centuries  these  inquiries  were  a  taunt  and  a 
sneer.  They  were  the  mockery  of  gratuitous  offense. 
Why  need  they  have  been  asked  ?  Why  should  the 
world  inquire,  "What  is  thy  occupation ? "  when  trades, 


I   AM   A   HEBREW.  89 

professions,  opportunities  and  reward  were  all  cut  off 
from  the  friendless  exile.  Why  ask,  whence  comest  thou, 
when  the  answer  would  indicate  not  his  home,  but 
simply  his  last  point  of  departure.  Why  ask,  what  is 
thy  country  ?  had  the  Jew  a  country?  And  when  met 
with  the  query,  of  what  people  art  thou,  how  need  he 
respond  save  by  pointing  silently  to  his  garments  with 
their  yellow  badge  of  shame  ;  to  the  squalid  ghetto  his 
home,  the  prison  of  his  people ;  and  to  the  changeless 
features  of  his  countenance  that  advertised  to  the  casual 
eye,  his  tribe  and  his  descent  ?  And  if  articulate  state- 
ment were  needed,  then  "  I  am  a  Hebrew  "  decided  at 
once  his  trade,  his  origin,  his  country  and  his  people. 
That  time,  thank  God,  has  passed  away  in  almost 
every  land,  where  the  Hebrew  was  indicated  by  the  evi- 
dence of  material  degradation.  But  so  powerfully  had 
the  centuries  moulded  the  national  character,  so  intensi- 
fied was  the  Jewish  type  by  ages  of  isolation,  that 
deep  in  the  brain  and  heart  of  all  Israel,  the  Hebraic 
-^characteristics  were  imprinted.  It  is  startling  to  note 
how  even  renegades  from  the  ranks,  in  spite  of  them- 
selves, proclaim :  "I  am  a  Hebrew,"  by  their  very 
genius  and  achievements.  I  have  in  mind  four  illus- 
trious apostates,  Jews  in  spite  of  themselves,  saturated 
by  their  ancestry, — Mendelsohn  with  the  passion  and 
witchery  of  his  songs,  Heine,  a  Jewish  blending  of  wit 
and  melancholy;  Disraeli  with  his  Asiatic  dreams  of 
empire,  and  Spinoza  with  his  gigantic  system  of  mono- 
theistic thought.  The  children  of  their  brain  were 
born  of  Israel,  their  intellectual  progeny  could  not  dis- 
claim its  origin. 

And  now  to-day  on  hospitable  soil,  in  the  spacious 
cradle  of  a  new  civilization,  we  are  loosening  the  ties 
that  formerly  made  us  strong.  Lulled  by  favoring 
gales  we  float  smoothly  with  the  tide.     We  are  break- 


90  I   AM   A   HEBREW. 

ing  away  from  our  ancient  moorings.  We  are  forget- 
ting the  past,  with  its  terrors  and  nightmares  of  horror. 
And  children  have  been  bom  to  you  on  these  gracious 
shores,  who  can  hardly  realize  the  events  of  our  sad 
history,  nor  ever  had  burnt  in  upon  them  the  mean- 
ing of  the  verse  that  is  our  text  to-day. 

We  need  an  awakening.  American  Jews  have  been 
more  fortunate  than  faithful.  They  have  been  swept 
away  by  the  currents  of  a  busy  life,  and  though  dow- 
ered with  a  mission  and  divine  message  unto  men, 
like  the  prophet  called  to  Niniveh  yet  fleeing  to  Tarsh- 
ish,  a  richer  province,  they  have  swerved  from  their 
appointed  purpose,  and  taken  ship  for  the  Harbor  of 
Fortune. 

And  to-day  at  the  time  of  such  dire  need  for  many 
of  our  faith,  the  old  battle-cry  should  be  heard  in  no 
uncertain  tones.  The  old  question  used  to  be  answered 
silently  by  the  garments  and  the  ghetto.  Then  even 
in  happier  ages  we  could  point  to  Jewish  poems,  songs 
and  noble  thoughts.  Now  we  need  the  answer  to  these 
curious  inquiries  to  be  made  manifest  in  our  homes, 
our  children,  our  religious  life.  Each  one  of  them 
should  be  an  illustration  of  the  eternal  motto,  "I  am 
a  Hebrew." 

The  home  should  be  something  more  than  a  bed 
and  a  table.  It  should  be  something  more  than  a 
social  center  and  a  lounging-place.  It  moulds  many 
lives,  it  decides  the  destinies  of  the  rising  generation 
according  to  its  prevailing  spirit.  It  is  a  nursery,  a 
school,  a  source  of  life-long  influence.  The  work  of 
the  teacher,  the  words  of  the  preacher  may  be  neutral- 
ized or  emphasized  by  the  fireside.  There  it  is  that 
principles  are  formed,  fidelity  is  fostered,  and  habits  of 
thought  as  of  action  are  fixed  forever.  What  is  the 
influence    of    your    homes?    Poes    the    cha^r^jft    linger 


I    AM   A   HEBREW.  91 

there  of  the  ancient  Jewish  life,  the  tender  customs, 
the  affection,  the  reverence  that  made  it  a  paradise 
for  our  fathers?  You,  parents,  are  preaching 
Judaism,  not  the  ministers  in  the  pulpits.  You 
are  deciding  our  religious  future.  You  are  de- 
termining whether  the  Hebrew  faith  shall  be  a 
colorless  imitation  of  other  creeds,  an  outlived 
antiquity,  a  mummy  to  be  scanned  curiously  and 
then  passed  by,  or  a  living  reality  entwined  with 
sweet  recollections  in  the  hearts  of  the  children,  en- 
deared to  them  by  the  memories  of  the  old  fire- 
side and  the  example  that  you  have  set  them.  The 
Hebrew  spirit  that  has  been  extinguished  in  the 
home  will  never  be  rekindled  in  the  schoolhouse  or 
in  the  synagogue. 

And  after  the  home  in  importance  comes  the 
school.  The  education  of  the  young  should  be  in- 
separably associated  with  their  religious  training. 
Jewish  children  are  not  taught  sufficiently  the  mean- 
ing of  the  word,  Israel.  Their  history,  the  records 
of  their  race,  the  leaders  of  their  people  in  the  past, 
should  be  engraven  upon  their  susceptible  minds. 
The  Hebrew  language  that  has  been  a  vital  bond 
among  Israelites  in  all  lands  should  be  more  widely 
studied.  I  would  favor  the  establishment  of  schools 
in  which  secular  education  should  be  combined  with 
Jewish  training.  Why  should  it  not  so  be  ?  The  great 
colleges  of  the  country  are  supported  by  religious 
sects.  The  Unitarians,  the  Episcopalians,  the  Presby- 
terians have  each  their  pet  institution  of  learning. 
Reverence  is  fostered  with  enlightenment,  integrity  with 
intelhgence.  The  Catholic  Church  is  the  mightiest 
organized  power  in  the  world  to-day,  because  it 
secures  the  young,  it  surrounds  them  with  its  in- 
fluences,  it  makes   religion  a   Becond   nature  to   them, 


92  I   AM   A   HEBREW. 

and  binds  them  for  life  to  be  soldiers  of  the  church. 
We  need  a  similar  policy,  if  we  would  perpetuate 
the  spiritual  power  of  the  synagogues,  and  make  our 
children  proud  of  their  descent  by  understanding  its 
historical  significance. 

And  finally  let  this  same  ringing  declaration  char- 
acterize your  allegiance  to  your  religion.  Is  it  simply 
race-pride  that  attaches  you  to  your  brethren,  is  it 
simply  the  bond  of  blood?  Is  Israel  a  nation  to-day 
imbedded  within  a  nation?  Is  the  cry  of  Jew-baiters 
justified  that  we  are  simply  a  class,  united  by  the  free- 
masonry of  common  interests,  but  pledged  to  no  prin- 
ciple, bent  upon  no  high  purpose?  There  is  no  cal- 
umny that  has  wrought  us  more  harm  than  that,  no 
hateful  libel  that  is  so  generally  believed  in  by  the 
world.  It  is  for  you  to  stamp  out  this  false  aspersion 
by  proving  your  fidelity  is  rather  to  your  religion  than 
to  your  race ;  to  the  race  when  persecuted  for  their 
religion ;  but  chiefly  to  the  religion  in  its  purity  are 
we  attached  as  a  unit  by  our  belief  in  its  sublime 
excellence.  When  charged  with  exclusiveness ;  when 
assailed  for  being  a  peculiar  people  ;  when  accused  of 
arrogance  in  refusing  inter-marriage  with  the  peo- 
ple of  the  land,  what  justification  have  we  in  this 
policy  of  isolation,  if  it  be  not  the  guardianship  of 
an  hereditary  trust  that  cannot  be  committed  to 
strangers?  The  un-Judaized  Jew,  the  mongrel  type  of 
half-breed  that  is  so  common  to-day,  has  no  reason 
to  stand  apart  and  preserve  his  separateness.  Nay, 
but  it  devolves  upon  those  chosen  out  for  a  high  mis- 
sion among  the  nations  of  the  earth,  to  either  live  up 
to  their  calling  and  stand  by  their  flag,  or  lose  their 
useless  identity  and  merge  themselves  into  the  popu- 
lation of  the  world. 

This  is   really   the  alternative  presented  to   each  one 


1   AM   a"  HEBREW.  9S 

of  US.  It  is  a  choice  of  extremes,  a  necessary  choice 
of  extremes  as  history  will  ere  long  demonstrate.  The 
Catholic  Church  has  been  suffered  by  mankind  to  se- 
clude herself  behind  triple  barriers  because  she  had 
doctrines  to  preach,  a  purpose  to  fulfil,  an  ideal  to 
further.  The  Jewish  synagogue  can  claim  the  same 
high  privilege,  if  the  motto  "I  am  a  Hebrew"  be  made 
manifest  in  faith,  in  practice,  in  fidelity ;  by  the  fireside, 
in  the   halls  of  learning,  and  in  the  house  of  God. 

This  is  the  great  lesson  of  to-day.  This  is  the  wis- 
dom that  history  teaches.  This  is  the  mighty  inspira- 
tion that  surges  into  the  hearts  of  multitudes  in  a 
wave  of  flame,  when  they  hear  that  their  kinsmen 
have  suffered  cruelly  without  cause,  and  that  they 
must  protest  against  the  atrocity  by  their  loyal  lives  as 
by  their  burning  words. 

It  would  be  much  if  on  this  day,  the  high,  old 
spirit  could  be  rekindled,  the  same  grand  fervor  glow 
in  our  blood,  warm  our  hearts  and  arouse  us  to  pas- 
sionate devotion  towards  the  wonderful  old  cause.  I  see 
all  round  the  world  millions  of  an  ancient  race  as- 
sembled for  prayer  to-day.  I  see  upon  their  shoulders 
white  garments.  They  are  wearing  shrouds  as  they 
pray  before  God.  It  is  as  if  this  were  a  ghostly  peo- 
ple that  had  risen  from  their  graves  in  their  wind- 
ing-sheets to  fulfil  a  solemn  charge,  and  verily  they 
have  risen  from  many  graves,  they  have  emerged  from 
the  raging  deep,  they  seem,  indeed,  to  be  an  enchanted 
race  that  not  water,  nor  tire  nor  weapons  can   destroy. 

We  receive  now  upon  us  the  inspiration  they  breathe. 
To-day  when  we  commemorate  our  dead,  to-day  when 
we  bury  our  dead  past,  may  we  be  moved  by  the  same 
mighty  spirit.  May  loyal  hearts  be  ours,  and  tender 
sympathies,  the  love  of  God  and  pardon  from  His 
throne  of  mercy.     Amen. 


THE  HARVEST   FESTIVAL. 


BY   EMIL   G.    HIRSCH. 


Pessimism  and  Judaism,  friends,  seem  to  lie  in  differ- 
ent planes.  But  rarely  does  the  carol  of  Jewish  hope 
and  aspiration,  the  song  of  Jewish  thought  and  Jewish 
conviction,  run  in  the  minor  scale;  unresolved  discords 
and  passing  chords  are  exceedingly  rare  in  the  score  of 
the  Jewish  symphony.  The  reader  of  the  Bihle  under- 
stands this  without  further  proof,  for  the  diapason  of  its 
melody  is  joy.  Even  when  prophet  or  bard  remembers 
the  darker  outlook,  when  the  disappointments  that 
burden  his  heart  and  the  forebodings  of  evil  that  op- 
press him  crowd  to  his  lips,  he  never  neglects  to  ac- 
centuate the  hope  that  after  the  somberer  notes  shall 
have  rung  their  measures,  a  brighter  movement  shall 
round  out  the  message  glorious  in  the  golden  certainty 
of  victory  and  of  peace. 

And  the  same  is  the  case  with  our  post-Biblical  liter- 
ature, when  indeed  there  might  have  been  provocation 
for  the  harp  of  Zion  to  be  attuned  to  the  dirgeful  vibra- 
tions of  pain  and  grief,  of  lament  and  woe.  Certainly  to 
no  other  number  of  men  did  ever  come  what  befell  our 
fathers  in  the  fifteen  centuries  designated  in  history  as 
those  timing  the  triumph  of  Christianity.  Whatever 
human  ingenuity  could  devise  to  degrade  brother  man 
was  utilized  for  the  subjection  of  the  children  of  Israel. 
They  enjoyed  none  of  the  rights,  they  had  to  discbarge 


all  the  obligations  allotted  to  the  sons  of  God.  Even  the 
air  was  measured  to  them  with  stingy  hand.  Huddled 
together  in  their  ghetto  they  were  forced  to  invite  the 
ravages  of  plague,  and  their  physical  life  was  intentionally 
so  conditioned  as  to  be  exposed  to  the  insidious  attack 
of  cowardly  disease.  It  was  their  buoyant  spirit  allied  to 
the  prophylactics  of  their  religion  which  set  to  naught 
the  plans  of  their  demoniac  enemies.  To  speak  of  the 
intellectual  advantages  meted  out  to  them  would  indeed 
be  calling  darkness  light,  the  wanderer  was  not  granted 
either  the  natural  or  artificial  means  to  set  ablaze  the 
torch  to  point  out  to  him  a  track  in  the  dreary  waste  of 
hatred. 

The  government  and  the  churches  conspired  to  rob 
Israel  of  that  which  Israel  loves,  the  light — the  light  of 
the  soul  and  the  light  of  the  mind.  Their  intrigue  failed 
ignominiously,  for  the  Jewish  notes  that  fill  with  sound 
those  fifteen  centuries  were  but  rarely  freighted  with 
despair  and  lent  themselves  only  unwillingly  to  gloomy 
despondency.  Certainly  one  or  the  other  of  those  gifted 
poets  whose  divan  even  to-day  constitutes  the  wonder  of 
the  students  of  mediaeval  literature,  at  times  poured  out 
his  grief  in  rhymes  dedicated  to  Zion  in  ruin,  or  wrung 
from  his  heart  by  Israel  writhing  in  pain.  Yet  even  he 
loved  and  longed  to  win  from  his  harp  the  stronger  notes 
of  hopefulness ;  to  sing  in  joyous  confidence  of  the  day 
when  from  the  dust  will  rise  again  what  the  flame  had  re- 
duced to  ashes,  when  I'rom  slavery  once  more  Israel  will 
scale  the  heights  of  liberty,  physical,  national  and  intel- 
lectual. So  even  in  that  long  dark  night  of  tears,  the 
song  of  Israel  was  quick  with  the  fire  of  joy  and  glad- 
some confidence  illumined  by  the  rays  of  a  pathetic 
hope   and  a  prayerful  trust. 

This  festal  tide,  which  we  this  year  celebrate  with 
such  dignified   symbolism,   is   monument  to   the  joyful 


96  THE   HARVEST   FESTIVAL. 

spirit,  very  warp  and  woof  as  it  is,  of  Israel's  con- 
viction. Behold,  it  follows  immediately  upon  the  solemn 
days.  Israel  will  not  tarry  long  wrapped  in  reflections 
upon  the  gloom-lined  clouds  of  sin— Israel  is  indeed  of 
a  serious  temperament,  but  its  seriousness  never  savors 
of  the  bitterness  which  is  the  condiment  of  hopelessness. 
Its  solemnities  are  void  of  the  sting  of  despondency. 
The  broken  notes  of  the  ram's  horn  on  the  natal  day 
of  the  year  were  not  the  echo  of  hearts  torn  by  doubt, 
of  souls  drooping  for  want  of  light,  and  the  day  that 
we  celebrated  a  week  ago— the  most  insistent  in  the 
cycle  of  the  synagogue's  appeals,  is,  according  to  the 
old  rabbinical  conception,  a  holy  day  and  a  holiday. 
It  is  not  a  mate  to  Good  Friday — an  hour  when  church 
is  hung  in  somber  curtains,  the  lights  extinguished  on 
the  altar,  when  ashes  alone  are  eloquent  and  gloom 
and  doom  wield  the  brush  to  quench  with  nightly 
ghast  all  that  would  glow  and  would  be  glorified.  No, 
our  Day  of  Atonement  is  flushed  with  light,  even  when 
its  message  clarions  the  appeal  of  most  earnest  mo- 
ment. 

And  as  a  child  of  these  two  solemn  days,  greets  us 
this  festal  tide  with  its  invitation:  "Thou  shalt  be 
joyful -surely  be  joyful."  The  Biblical  ordinances  iter- 
ate this  in  such  an  emphasis  that  no  one  may  read 
the  passages  without  being  struck  by  the  stress  and 
anxiety  quivering  through  every  phrase  that  this  week 
be  made  one  of  genuine  joy  and  universal  joy  fulness. 
As  such  a  harbinger  of  good  cheer  this  hour  is,  how- 
ever, not  a  strange  visitor  to  the  synagogue.  Joy  is 
not  a  transient  guest  in  the  household  of  Israel.  The 
old  pagan  religions,  too,  had  festal  tides  when  pleasure 
asked  for  the  hospitality  of  heart  and  home.  But 
theirs  was  the  joy  which  is  a  rare  respite  from  sullen 
servitude.     No  wonder  that  its  visit  was  signal  for  riot 


THE   HARVEST   FESTIVAL.  97 

and  revelry  -  its  main  preoccupation,  for  a  brief  spell, 
to  ignore  all  hounds  of  customed  decency.  The  Satur- 
nalia of  Rome  filled  the  streets  of  the  eternal  city  with 
drunken  bands  of  ribald  carousers,  and  woe  to  the 
woman  that  durst  brush  against  the  throng  of  pleasure 
seekers !  They  were  slaves  attempting  to  forget  their 
chains  in  the  illusion  of  masqueraded  freedom,  yet 
haunted  by  tlie  certainty  that  the  morrow  would  fasten 
around  their  ankles  once  more  the  ring  of  rankling, 
grinding  bondage. 

Not  so  this  festal  tide  in  the  Jewish  calendar.  It  is 
not  a  season  of  riot,  because  it  is  not  a  passing  guest. 
It  comes  not  as  a  short  measured  interruption  of  the 
chain-gang's  dreary  degradation;  not  as  a  flitting  sun- 
beam on  its  hurried  passage  from  night  to  night.  This 
is  not  a  festival  sacred  to  Bacchus  or  to  Dionysius, 
whose  symbol  is  the  flowing  cup  that  cheers,  but  engen- 
ders by  its  very  exuberance  and  assumed  gaiety  empti- 
ness of  heart,  and  racks  with  its  consequent  uneasiness 
the  very  frame  of  its  votaries.  No,  because  joy  is  a 
constant  attendant  at  the  table  of  Judaism,  this  day 
spells  a  chaster,  a  healthier  mood  than  debauching 
pleasure  of  tickling  and  tingling  senses.  Its  legend  is 
hope,  its  lesson,  to  be  well  laid  to  mind,  to  be  profita- 
bly aj)plied  in  our  daily  doings,  in  the  round  of  hourly 
duties,  is  trustfulness  in  Him  from  whom  all  blessings 
flow. 

It  is  true,  for  us  this  day  has  no  longer  the  signi- 
ficance it  held  in  the  symbolism  of  the  fathers.  For 
the  Biblical  age  this  tide  was  vocal  with  gratitude 
welling  from  the  hearts  of  the  farmers.  The  Jews  are 
no  longer  farmers.  That  they  are  not  such,  is  not  their 
fault.  From  platform  and  pulpit,  in  press  and  in  pri- 
vate prints,  especially  in  these  last  years  of  anti-Semit- 
ism, the    charge  has  been    hurled    against  us  that   we 


98  THE   HARVEST   FESTIVAL. 

are  vultures  following  the  caravans  of  pioneers  that  go 
forth  to  spread  culture  and  civilization,  waiting  for  the 
camels  to  fall,  or  the  weary  wanderer  to  sink,  in  or- 
der to  swoop  down  upon  them  and  to  fatten  upon  the 
rotting  carrion.  A  proof  of  this  accusation  is  always 
our  alleged  disinclination  to  handle  the  plow,  to  draw 
the  rake,  to  scatter  the  seed,  to  break  the  sod,  to  woo 
and  win  from  the  earth  that  which  sustaineth  man. 
Certainly  we  are  no  longer  farmers;  but  there  is  no 
natural  instinct  ingrained  in  the  Jew  which  would 
turn  him  awa}^  from  agricultural  pursuit.  There  is 
nothing  in  his  religion  that  would  tend  to  arrest  the 
hesitating  inclination  to  be  a  tiller  of  the  soil.  To  the 
contrary,  the  natural  bias  of  the  Hebrews  and  Jews  in 
Biblical  days  ran  toward  the  plow  and  the  hoe  and 
the  rake;  and  the  religion  of  the  Jew,  if  it  encour- 
aged any  tendency,  engendered  and  promoted  the 
slumbering  leaning  toward  agricultural  life,  and  dis- 
couraged the  exceptional  predisposition  of  its  adherents 
to  engage  in  mercantile  pursuit.  Interest  is  condemned 
by  the  social  economics  of  the  Pentateuch — agriculture 
is  the  skeleton,  the  back-bone  around  which  grows  the 
flesh  of  Biblical  religious  ceremonial.  Sacrifices  had  to 
be  offered  in  the  temple — whence  were  they  procured? 
From  the  pasture  and  the  fields  under  high  cultivation. 
The  law  of  the  land  religiously  proclaimed  and  reli- 
giously sanctioned,  rooted  in  the  presumption  that  the 
people  as  a  whole  were  farmers.  More  than  one  third 
of  the  ordinances  that  fill  the  Pentateuch  deal  with 
subjects  of  vital  concern  to  the  tiller  of  the  soil. 
Poetry  borrowed  its  symbols  and  eloquence  its  meta- 
phors from  the  farmer's  life,  and  when  the  prophet 
wished  to  paint  the  future  in  colors  of  peace  and 
plenty,  he  knew  no  other  way  to  press  home  his 
vision  than  by  predicting  a  time  when   everyone   shall 


THE   HARVEST   FESTIVAL.  \)^ 

rest  under  his  own  vine  and  sit  under  his  own  fig- 
tree.  Again  remember  that  the  early  compilation  of 
rabbinic  maxims  and  regulations,  the  Mishnah,  has  one 
sixth  of  its  bulky  mass  inscribed  to  the  elucidation  of 
laws  relating  to  agriculture — to  the  farmer's  vocation! 
And  in  spite  of  these  facts,  our  enemies  to-day  shout 
with  lying  lips — "The  Jew  by  nature  and  by  religion 
has  a  strong,  an  irrepressible  bias  against  handling 
the  plow— he  is  a  merchant,  dealing  in  money  ;  he  is 
the  usurer — vampire  like,  sucking  the  blood  of  his 
victims — the  nations  that,  in  a  weak  moment  of  theirs, 
prompted  by  a  mistaken  humanity  of  theirs,  allowed 
him  to  tarry  in  the  midst  of  them  and  to  strike  the 
roots  of  his  Upas  tree  into  their  very  soil."  It  is  a 
lie  blacker  than  which  there  is  none.  This  festival  is 
the  best  proof  that  the  calumny  has  not  even  the 
shadow  of  an  historic  excuse.  If  we  ceased  being 
farmers,  Christian  church  and  Christian  state  must 
trace  the  blame  to  their  own  intrigues.  To-day  in 
Russia,  a  sample  of  the  Christian  state— Christian  to 
the  core,  I  suppose — to-day  in  Russia,  the  Jew  is  not 
allowed  on  equal  terms  with  the  no n- Jew  to  own  land. 
And  so  it  was  throughout  the  world — landed  estates 
were  by  law  prohibited  from  being  under  the  control 
and  from  being  worked  by  the  hands  of  him  who 
proclaimed  as  his  creed  twice  each  day  the  unity  of 
God. 

And  that  God — was  he  not  a  farmer  in  the  beginning  ? 
I  know  Mr.  Ingersoll  and  others  play  upon  this  string 
to  evoke  a  salvo  and  volley  of  laughter  on  the  part  of 
their  rattle-brain  hearers,  "  Why!  the  God  of  the  Jews 
planted  a  garden,  walked  about  among  its  fruit  trees,  cut 
the  trees,  bound  the  hedges,  he  worked  in  a  vinej^ard." 
This  poetic  metaphor  is  a  patent  of  dignity  to  the  God 
of  Israel.     It  reflects  the  feelings  and  the  convictions  of 


100  THE   HARVEST   FESTIVAL. 

the  Jews.  A  people  that  in  its  mythology  could  make 
its  God  a  farmer,  was  a  people  alive  to  the  nobility 
and  to  the  necessity  of  the  farmer's  vocation. 

To-day  we  could  not  render  Judaism  a  better  service 
than  by,  if  possible,  combining  to  lead  once  more  the 
young  men  and  the  young  women  into  the  channels  of 
agricultural  pursuits.  A  blot  on  American  Israel  are 
the  ghettos  arising  now  in  our  cities.  Against  that  sea 
of  misery  our  relief  societies  cope  in  vain.  Its  frothy 
billows  rage  and  bring  to  surface  muddy  sub-sediments. 
That  day's  would  be  a  blessed  dawn  whose  sun  would 
shine  on  concerted  action  to  wean  the  young — not 
merely  of  the  Russians— the  young  of  all  Jews  in  due 
proportion,  from  mercantile  life,  to  win  them  for  the 
noble  duties  of  the  farm.  Yea,  not  merely  the  Jew 
should  heed  the  lesson  of  this  day.  The  whole  of  the 
American  people  might  lay  it  to  heart.  There  is  some- 
thing unhealthy  in  the  growth  of  our  city  centers.  The 
cities  are  the  seat  of  culture — who  would  deny  this? 
But  city  culture  is  often  fringed  by  shame  and  sin.  The 
city  is  the  home  of  learning,  it  is  also  the  cover  of 
the  slums.  These  slums  should  be  cleansed,  and  out 
into  the  freer  and  nobler  air  of  the  country  should  go 
the  waifs  of  our  streets  and  others,  and  our  nation  would 
be  all  the  stronger  for  a  deeper  appreciation  of  the 
value  of  the  farmer's  station  in  the  economic  conditions, 
and  as  a  factor  in  the  financial  prosperity,  as  a  power 
for  moral  redemption,  of  the  whole  community  from 
ocean  to  ocean  and  from  the  lakes  to  the  gulf. 

Those  societies  that  make  it  their  business  to  plant  the 
children,  lost  in  our  great  cities,  on  the  opportune  soil 
of  a  western  farm,  do  more  for  humanity  than  we  do 
in  our  orphan  asylums  and  other  institutions  for  the 
preservation  and  education  of  our  children. 

I  do  not  wish  to  be  misunderstood.     If  the  system  be 


THE  HARVEST" FESTiTAL;        '>''''>'.'■''  101 

granted  good,  there  are  no  nobler  institutions  than  our 
orphan  asylums,  but  with  all  this,  I  say  that  the  non- 
Jewish  societies  that  are  organized  to  find  homes  on  farms 
for  dependent  children,  do  much  more  for  humanity 
than  we  do  by  clinging  with  the  tenacity  of  fanaticism 
to  a  system  which  has  its  limitations,  to  a  plan  that, 
by  many  of  the  best  philanthropists  of  the  world,  has 
been  condemned  as  falling  short  of  the  ideal  within  reach. 

This  Sukkoth-tide  should  call  out  to  American  Israel 
at  least :  Make  efforts  that  your  slums  be  cleansed  and 
your  ghettos  be  thrown  down !  Let  there  rise,  as  was 
visioned  by  prophet  and  psalmist,  once  more  all  over 
the  country,  Jewish  farm  houses ;  let  us  rear  Jewish 
tillers  of  the  soil,  blessing  by  the  pearling  sweat  of  their 
brow  all  humanity! 

Another  thought  our  fathers  laid  to  heart  when  this 
Sukkoth-tide  gladdened  their  homes.  The  oriental  em- 
blems, the  waving  palm  branch  reminded  them  of  the 
sky  of  Palestine,  and  the  traditional  fruit  of  the  "splen- 
did tree  "  also  spoke  of  the  land  of  the  rising  sun,  of  the 
days  of  their  rising  faith. 

In  the  Middle  Ages  this  symbolism  meant  much  to 
the  wayfarers  in  the  desert  of  persecution.  They  had 
no  country.  Edward  Everett  Hale's  story,  pathetic, 
stirring,  awful,  sublime— of  the  man  without  a  country, 
has  been  lived  and  lived  in  sorrow,  lived  in  pain  and 
lived  in  tears,  not  by  one  alone,  by  millions.  But  while 
the  exile  from  country  who  never  heard  name  of  flag  or 
mention  of  fatherland  had  brought  this  doom  upon  him- 
self by  his  own  folly  and  the  fanaticism  of  his  own  stub- 
born sympathies,  those  millions,  expatriated  and  treated 
like  outcasts  in  the  dark  centuries,  had  done  naught 
to  deserve  such  cruel  treatment,  such  dehumanizing  ostra- 
cism from  the  privileges  that  go  with  man  in  the  very 
hour  of  his  birth.     They  were  in  the  eyes  of  the  law 


102  TKB  iiAliVEST  FESTIVAL. 

strangers,  without  country,  and  still  they  loved  the  land 
where  they  were  born — still  they  loved  the  soil  which 
covered  the  ashes  of  their  fathers.  Let  them  say  what 
they  will,  even  the  media)val  Jews— not  allowed  to  be 
citizens  under  the  sky  that  welcomed  them  into  life, 
were  patriots  to  the  last.  They  clung  to  the  language 
of  their  home-land  with  an  attachment  wonderful. 

To-day  even,  the  descendants  of  the  Spanish  Jews  in 
the  regions  of  blighted  Turkey,  speak  Spanish— the 
Spanish  of  the  day  when  Isabella  of  Aragon  and  her 
husband  signed  the  decree  that  drove  nearly  three  hun- 
dred thousand  men  and  women  from  the  shores  where 
for  hundreds  of  years  their  ancestors  had  been  settled — 
whose  songs  they  sang,  whose  idiom  they  spoke,  whose 
loves  they  shared  and  whose  prosperity  they  helped  to 
deepen  and  to  spread  abroad.  To-day  the  Jew  speaks 
German  in  non-Germanic  districts  if  his  ancestors  were 
German.  The  international  language  of  the  Jews  is  not 
as  many  suppose  Hebrew,  it  is  German  to  this  very 
hour.  How  justly  then  do  German  anti-Semites  rave  and 
rant  that  Jew  and  German  are  contradictories ! 

The  Jew  in  the  Middle  Ages  had  no  country.  The 
Sukkahj  the  Lulabh  and  the  Ethrog  spoke  to  him  of 
the  distant  land  that  once  was  his,  that  was  to  be  his 
again  with  the  revolving  cycles  of  the  speeding  suns. 
This  day  was  prophetic  to  him  of  a  future  national  re- 
demption. To  us  the  Sukkah  does  not  herald  a  national 
restoration.  Thank  God  we  have  a  country.  Ours  is  a 
flag,  and  there  is  none  more  glorious  than  that  which 
waves  over  this  house,  a  pendant  worthy  of  these  Eastern 
symbols.  Let  us  be  asked,  which  is  your  country?  We 
answer,  not  Palestine.  We  answer,  America.  Patriotism 
is  part  of  the  Jewish  religion  and  the  symbolism  of  the 
synagogue  has  no  more  sacred  sign  than  that  which 
has   borrowed  the   colors  of  the  sun,  and   the    fields   of 


THE   HARVEST  FESTIVAL.  103 

the  sky,  and  the'^twinkle  of  the  sentries  of  the  night,  to 
bring  home  to  the  people  o'er  which  it  floats  the  duty 
to  be  the  beacon  for  the  opi:)ressed,  the  star  for  the 
weary  and  the  wanderers.  Not  of  a  distant,  but  of  a 
near  land  speaks  to  us  the  symbolic  language  of  this 
hour,  and  thus,  as  the  Sukkah  of  old  appealed  to  Israel 
not  to  forget  Jerusalem,  so  to-day  it  calls  out  to  us  not 
to  forget  loyalty  to  land,  not  to  neglect  duty  as  citizens, 
as  members  of  the  larger  community. 

And  another  lesson  the  Sukkah  points  out.  It  is  a 
hastily  constructed  shelter.  It  spells  the  warning  that 
no  man  on  earth  is  more  than  a  pilgrim,  it  frames  the 
admonition  to  remember  that  in  synagogue  and  in  tem- 
ple there  shall  always  be  free  access  to  light — to  air, 
and  that  Israel  shall  ever  be  ready  to  break  up  the 
booth  and  pilgrim  on  to  build  another  at  a  new  sta- 
tion, where  fresher  waters  bubble  and  higher  palms 
wave  in  the  purer  air. 

Sukkoth  is  emblematical  of  the  eternally  progressive  i 
spirit  of  Judaism.  The  world  at  large  does  not  un-  | 
derstand  this,  and  the  world  at  home  in  Judaism,  is  ' 
often  ready  to  deny  this.  Why  otherwise  so  many 
born  in  Israel's  household  indifferent  to  Israel's  spir- 
itual appeal?  That  persons  should  be  indifferent  who 
have  no  higher  view  of  life  than  pleasure,  who  know 
nothing  more  as  a  standard  of  humanity  than  posses- 
sion of  earthly  things,  is  natural.  There  be  men  that 
are  color  blind.  There  be  others  that  are  sound-deaf; 
there  are  again  men  that  have  no  eyes  for  spiritual 
things,  that  have  no  ears  for  melodies  intoned  in  the 
higher  sky !  But  it  is  not  always  among  these  that 
they  are  found  who  deny  to  Judaism  to-day  the  right 
to  be.  That  men  who  grovel  in  the  dust  cannot  under- 
stand the  poetry  and  the  moral  potency  of  a  martyrdom 
extended    over    centuries,   stands    to    reason — for    what 


1()4  THK   HARVEST  FESTlVAt. 

tokens  to  a  man  so  organized,  a  defense  of  principle  ? 
Why,  certainly,  if  dust  and  dross — if  gold  and  glamor 
of  earthly  glory  l)e  the  sum  and  substance  of  human 
liCo,  the  Jews  are  fools  for  refusing  to  yield  when  the 
world  in  one  hand  offers  gold  and  in  the  other  threat- 
eningly lifts  up  the  lash  to  let  it  fall  on  the  back  of 
liim  who  spurns  the  bribe.  Then  indeed  the  fathers 
were  worse  than  fools  in  living  the  life  they  did,  ever 
ready  to  pilgrim  on,  never  sure  that  they  be  not 
hailed  witli  the  cruel  "Move  on,  cursed  Jew !  Thou 
must  not  loiter  and  tarry ! "  Then  they  were  worse 
than  criminals  in  denying  what  they  denied  and  in  af- 
firming what  they  affirmed.  But  if  there  be  more  to 
life  than  what  is  made  of  dust — if  there  be  a  higher 
glory  than  that  which  streams  out  from  shining  ducats, 
if  there  be  more  to  human  existence  than  the  reeling 
passage  from  riot  to  revelry  and  from  pleasure  to  pas- 
sion, then  indeed  there  is  no  record  so  sublime,  no 
page  of  history  so  studded  with  sparkling  diamonds, 
emblematic  of  the  diadem  of  human  dignity  and  hu- 
man royalty  than  is  that  tear-stained  document  telling 
of  Israel's  fortitude  and  of  Israel's  fortune  under  stress 
of  bitter,   relentless  persecution. 

What  did  Israel  stand  for  ?  For  liberty  of  conscience 
— for  freedom  to  think.  What  did  Israel  deem  the 
highest?  Free  thought.  Who  was  the  aristocrat  among 
the  Jews  up  to  one  hundred  years  ago?  The  man 
of  learning.  The  richest  man  thought  his  daugh- 
ter happy  and  enviable  if  she  married  the  poorest 
DDn  1"'D^n,  the  poorest  among  the  learned.  Learning 
was  the  patent  of  nobility.  Where  is  another  set  of 
human  beings  that  paid  such  regard  to  intellectual 
pursuits?     There   is  none. 

The  Sukkah  is  symbol  of  freedom;  it  invites  ingress 
and   egress  of  air,   it   courts   and   covets  light.     Like   it 


THE   HARVEST  FESTIVAL.  l05 

always  was  the  condition  of  Jewish  religious  thought. 
We  have  no  trammels,  no  dogmas.  Each  one  of  us 
can  think  out  his  highest  problems  as  he  chooses.  No 
synod  and  no  symbolum  will  tell  you  what  you  must 
believe.  Thought  is  free  in  Judaism,  and  therefore 
the  spiritual  Jewish  synagogue  was  always  a  Sukkah — 
a  temporary  construction.  Those  among  us  to-day,  and 
there  be  such  even  among  the  rabbis,  that  constantly 
clamor  for  a  more  definite  statement,  for  a  stricter  and 
more  strenuous  organization,  for  S3mibolism  that  is  more 
generally  accepted  and  must  be  everywhere  observed, 
mistake  the  spirit  of  Judaism.  They  are  traitors  to 
this  very  symbol,  the  Sukkah.  They  would  shut  out 
light  and  air.  They  would  rob  Judaism  of  that  which 
is  its  privilege — to  break  camp  and  to  move  on.  The 
Sukkah,  the  tabernacle,  was  the  symbol  of  God's  resi- 
dence in  Israel,  but  it  was  not  a  y^D  rr\*1 ;  it  moved 
and  was  movable ;  and  so  did,  and  so  will,  and  so 
shall  Judaism  move  ever  on.  This  restlessness  is  its 
distinctive  genius. 

Do  you  suppose  that  our  organization  in  this  congre- 
gation is  final — that  perhaps  to-morrow  changes  might 
not  be  made  and  must  not  be  made?  You  are  mis- 
taking the  spirit  of  Judaism,  if  you  so  reason.  There 
are  men  of  ideal  tendencies  to-day  among  us  that  are  , 
cold  to  the  synagogue,  simply  because  they  do  not 
understand  this.  Judaism  in  the  Middle  Ages  made 
an  alliance  with  Aristotelian  philosophy,  because  Aris- 
totle then  was  held  to  have  given  to  man  the  key 
to  the  riddles  of  the  universe.  To-day  Judaism  strikes 
alliance  with  evolution.  As  then,  so  now  it  remains — 
Judaism. 

Was  ever  Jew  tried  for  subscribing  to  a  new  doc- 
trine on  the  Bible?  Was  I  ever  summoned  before 
council  because  I   stated  in   the  hearing  of  a   company 


106  THE   HARVEST  FESTIVAL. 

of  forty-five  rabbis  in  conference  assembled  that  I  be- 
lieved that  not  a  single  word  of  the  Pentateuch  was 
written  by  Moses?  I  was  not.  I  am  a  Jew  to-day. 
There  is  none  that  can  deny  this  to  me,  while  the  Pres- 
byterian church  quarrels  with  Prof.  Briggs,  and  while 
Baptists  look  askance  at  the  possibility  of  President 
Harper  spoiling  the  young  men  for  good  believers  in 
Baptist  doctrine.  We  Jews  know  that  freedom  of 
thought  and  freedom  of  expression  is  the  very  vital 
element  in  Judaism.  And  why  then,  be  ye  indifferent 
to  a  religion  that  welcomes  of  searching  science,  the 
light,  and  gives  to  freest  thought,  so  long  as  thought 
it  is,  free  access  to  its  ever  temporary  abode?  The 
Sukkah  symbols  the  progressive  spirit  of  Judaism,  which 
always  is  a  preparation  for  a  higher,  a  deeper  phase 
and  tide  of  spirituality  and   humanity. 

Again  the  Sukkah  is  the  silent  but  eloquent  preacher 
of  profound  ethical  ideas.  The  farmer's  life,  what  does 
it  teach?  It  illustrates  at  least  this  one  truth— that 
all  that  man  can  do  is  to  do  his  duty,  and  that  re- 
ward, or  the  withholding  of  the  reward  cannot  affect 
him,  because  this  must  be  left  to  a  power  higher 
than  his — to  a  will  wiser  than  his.  The  farmer  may 
plow — he  may  plant— he  places  the  seed  in  the  keep- 
ership  of  mother  earth,  but  whether  that  seed  so 
cradled  will  sprout  into  fruit  he  knoweth  not.  The 
heavens  must  co-operate  w4th  him.  The  sun  must  be 
his  ally.  The  dews  of  the  night  and  the  tears  of 
the  day-time  must  come  to  his  aid  in  proper  measure. 
He  may  work  and  work — if  the  winds  blow  the  hot 
breath  of  the  sirocco — if  the  skies  be  leaden — if  too 
copiously  the  heavens  weep,  or  if  too  charily  the  night 
sheds  the  honey  of  its  dew,  the  farmer's  toil  is  in  vain. 
Thus,  the  farmer's  life  teaches  dependence,  and  it 
teaches   trust. 


THE  HARVEST  FESTIVAL.  107 

It  has  been  noticed  in  all  times  that  farmers  are 
more  religious  than  other  people— that  there  is  in  ag- 
ricultural pursuits  an  element  which  will  attune  the 
human  mind  to  religious  sentiment.  The  observation 
is  well  founded.  For  the  farmer  learns  from  his  daily 
task  the  great  lesson  of  dependence  and  the  vital  in- 
sistence of  trust.  Science  to-day  has  not  robbed  the 
operation  of  the  farmer's  occupation  of  its  mystery. 
Agricultural  chemistry  can  tell  us  what  substances 
enter  into  the  formation  of  fruit  — it  can  inform  us  of 
the  quantities  of  this  element  and  of  the  presence  of 
another — it  may  caution  us  that  without  phosphates 
the  soil  will  not  allow  the  seed  to  sprout— it  may  be 
eloquent  about  the  physiology  of  the  plant,  relate  to 
us  hoAV  the  cell  develops  into  the  semen,  how  plant 
marries  plant,  in  shy  timidity  as  a  cryptogam  or  in 
bold  joy  as  a  phanerogam— it  may  describe  in  detail 
the  lacery  of  the  leaves,  and  nature  spins  laces  so 
delicate  that  none  of  our  buyers  who  go  to  Brussels 
and  there  consult  the  masters  can  bring  back  to  us 
wonders  of  art  such  as  drop  from  the  skies,  so  to 
speak — such  as  are  woven  on  the  looms  where  the 
plants  are  threaded  by  the  hand  of  creative  nature. 
But  all  our  science  does  not  tell  us  how  from  the 
seed  and  why  from  the  seed,  comes  plant  or  fruit. 
It  is  dumb  in  the  presence  of  tins  mystery  of  crea- 
tion, this  great  monition  of  trust  and  of  dependence. 
The  farmer  believes  in  the  benevolence  of  nature.  He 
believes  in  the  lawfulness  of  nature.  He  believes  in 
the  steadiness   of  nature. 

Bind  the  ideas  I  have  now  described  in  these  com- 
mon terms  together  as  are  bound  together  the  leaves  of 
the  waving  palm  branch  in  our  Sukkah  —you  have  what 
theologians  call  God.  All  the  world  is  one  chain  of 
dependence.     All  life  is  under  law,  and  all  life  is  under 


108  THE   HARVEST   PESTTVAI;. 

mystery.  That  mystery  no  science  can  unravel.  That 
trust  no  science  can  replace;  that  dependence  no 
science  can  annul. 

//Religion  is  then  the  doctrine  of  dependence.  Re- 
ligion is  the  messenger  of  trust.  Religion  is  the  em- 
phasis on  the  orderliness,  on  the  rationality  of  the 
universe.  Religion  teaches  what  the  farmer  knows — that 
it  is  for  man  to  do  his  part,  but  whether  that  part 
event  in  harvest  or  end  in  drouth,  depends  upon  a  higher 
wisdom,  and  upon  a  deeper  purpose  than  we  men  wot.y/ 
And  thus  this  day  proclaims  to  us  this  thought:  Do 
your  duty!  Do  it  hopefully!  Do  it  trustfully!  Do  it 
in  the  reverence  of  the  mystery  that  pervades  the  all! 
If  you  succeed  it  is  not  you  alone  who  have  wrought 
the  victory.  If  you  fail,  and  you  have  done  your  duty, 
a  wiser  economy  than  you  know  requires  the  sacrifice 
of   your  failure.     Do  jouv  duty — the  rest   is  with  God. 

And  now  finally  another  thought. 

The  farmer's  occupation  teaches  us  that  men  do  not 
work  for  self  alone.  The  farmer  produces  what  he  can- 
not use  up  himself,  yet  he  knows  that  upon  his  work 
depend  the  health  and  life  of  thousands  of  others.  There 
is  not  a  farm  but  produces  more  than  the  owner  would 
consume.  Is  the  goal  that  leads  on  the  farmer,  is  the 
goad  that  pricks  him  to  his  work  the  hunger  of  money? 
The  farmer  knows  that  in  money  his  produce  brings 
but  little,  and  still  he  listens  to  the  voices  of  the  deep 
that  exclaim:  "Plant  — we  are  ready  to  pay  our  toll!" 
He  knows  that  if  he  were  to  strike,  were  to  la}'  down 
his  task,  thousands  that  he  does  not  know,  millions  of 
whose  existence  he  is  not  aware  by  name,  will  die  of 
famine,  of  dread  plague  and  of  disease.  Like  the  farmer, 
everyone  of  us  works  for  another.  Like  the  farmer 
everyone  is  responsible  for  the  health  and  life  of  others. 

In  olden   days  distinctions  were  made  between  profes- 


THE   HARVEST   FESTIVAL.  109 

sions  and  business.  The  professions  were  called  liberal. 
Business  was  held  to  have  its  compensation  in  gold— 
the  professions  to  have  theirs  in  honor.  But  everyone 
of  us  should  have  a  profession.  The  distinction  between 
profession  and  business  is  this :  Business  is  indeed  for 
money — profession  is  for  service  to  others.  A  true  phy- 
sician will  not  work  for  money.  It  is  with  him  a 
secondary  consideration.  And  a  true  jurist — not  a  law- 
yer—a jurist,  finds  his  satisfaction  in  being  the  pleader 
for  right,  and  the  defender  against  wrong,  in  being 
the  spreader  of  higher  appreciations  of  what  justice 
is.  And  the  minister  too,  has  his  satisfaction,  not  in 
the  gold  that  is  meted  to  him.  Up  to  the  day  when 
you  made  such  generous  provisions  for  me,  no  min- 
ister was,  among  the  Jews  at  least,  paid  more  than 
enough  to  buy  his  salt,  and  there  are  congregations 
that  to-day  even  do  not  know  their  responsibilities 
to  their  minister  who,  hired  by  the  year,  may  at  the 
expiration  of  the  contract  term  be  told  without  pity 
and  witjiout  shame,  to  go,  if  they  are  not  satisfied 
that  he,  the  drummer  has  done  his  duty,  the  com- 
mercial agent  has  won  new  customers;  until  you  set 
the  example,  the  minister  had  indeed  no  compensa- 
tion to  expect  in  the  financial  sense  of  the  term.  His 
reward  was  the  sweet  knowledge  that  he  worked  for 
others,  that  he  meant  something  in  the  life  of  others, 
that  he  stood  as  the  sea-wall  does,  against  the  inroads  of 
despair  into  the  minds  of  thousands  and  thousands — 
that  he  was  to  be  the  mountain-top  upon  which  rested 
the  sun's  light  first,  and  upon  which  it  lingered  last  when 
the  shades  of  superstition  and  of  selfishness  wrapped  in 
slumber  the  fog  beset  and  mist  hung  vales  at  its  base. 
Now  this  sense  of  satisfying  honor  we  all  need.  The 
day  is  past  even  in  this  country  when  our  business  en- 
terprises will  event  in  a  deluge  of  gold.     To-day— and 


110  THE   HARVEST   FESTIVAL. 

Americans  will  have  to  become  accustomed  to  the  pros- 
pect— work  will  not  resolve  in  wealth,  but  by  a  painful 
and  a  tedious  path  of  self-denial.  The  compensation 
of  our  daily  doings  must  be  sought  in  things  suggested 
by  the  farmers,  in  the  consciousness  that  we  are  of  ser- 
vice to  somebody. 

And  here  you  have  the  test  of  what  is  ethically 
legitimate.  The  farmer  works.  Upon  his  work  others 
depend.  He  injures  no  one.  He  crowds  to  the  wall 
no  one.  He  gives  bread  like  God  to  all.  No  wealth  is 
ethically  legitimate  that  does  not  stand  for  work  and 
for  production.  All  wealth  won  in  any  other  way  is 
from  the  ethical  standpoint,  an  injury,  and  modern  so- 
ciety begins  to  understand  that  this  is  the  case.  All 
enterprises  that,  not  like  the  farmer's,  are  grounded 
upon  the  notion  of  working  for  others,  but  upon  a 
merely  selfish  basis,  that  result  in  the  crowding  to  the 
wall  of  thousands — bringing  thousands  to  the  brink  of 
poverty,  to  the  ragged  edge  of  despair — are  from  the 
ethical  point  of  view  reprehensible  and  to  .  be  con- 
demned, and  this  is  not  among  the  least  important 
lessons  that  Sukkoth  should   teach  us. 

We  Jews,  by  cruel  fate  of  history  have  become 
largely  a  capitalistic  class.  In  Europe  especially  the 
large  resources — productions  of  industrial  ventures  and 
industrial  necessities,  are  under  the  control  of  Jewish 
firms.  Anti-semitism  to-day  is  not  merely  an  out-cry 
against  religion,  a  crusade  against  the  race  of  the  Jews, 
it  is  as  much  a  protest  against  exclusive  capitalistic 
organization.  Of  course,  those  that  crusade  against 
capital  do  not  understand  what  they  are  attempting. 
They,  too,  have  to  learn  the  lesson  that  one  must 
work  for  others — that  no  wealth  and  no  pleasure 
can  come  except  as  the  pay  for  self-sacrificing  service. 
They    clamor  for  their  rights  and   they    would   not  do 


THE   HARVEST  FESTIVAL.  Ill 

their  duties — but  the  fact  stands  that  notwithstanding 
their  stupidity  and  their  cupidity,  these  masses  that 
are  now  rising  in  blindness  like  Samson  of  yore,  have 
only  the  power  to  tear  down  the  pillars  of  the  temple 
of  society,  and  while  they  crush  themselves,  will  also 
crush  us.  Here  is  now  the  opportunity  of  the  Jews  to- 
day, and  it  is  this  that  the  world  desires  and  asks  of 
them.  Your  exclusive  capitalistic  fate  must  now  be 
turned  into  a  source  of  blessing  for  all  humanity,  and 
until  the  Jews  learn   this,   there  will   be   no  peace. 

What  can  we  do  ?  We  can  do  each  one  more  than 
we  deem  possible.  If  you  are  the  controller  of  labor, 
give  to  labor  its  dues.  If  you  are  in  a  position  to  fight 
against  the  iniquity  of  our  social  organization,  fight  it.  If 
all  houses  were  agreed  in  a  certain  line  of  business  which 
I  cannot  mention  here,  they  could  put  an  end  to  the 
sweat-shop.  There  is  no  profit  that  is  God-blessed  to 
which  clings  human  life  degraded  and  woman  perhaps 
unwomaned,  and  child  robbed  of  its  childhood.  Give  to 
your  working  people  a  chance  to  work  in  a  Sukkah, 
free,  airy  and  full  of  light  and  not  in  huddles  and 
holes  that  you  might  be  saved  a  little  bother,  for  in 
these  immoral  operations  the  profit  is  not  to  be  for 
a  moment  considered.  This  may  be  bold  talk,  for  all  I 
know  or  care,  but  if  the  minister  to-day  cannot  plead 
for  the  poor,  if  he  cannot  speak  for  those  that  have 
no  joy  on  a  day  when  we  say  "Thou  shalt  rejoice  and 
all  of  thy  seivants  with  thee" — if  he  cannot  plead  for 
the  weak  and  the  down-trodden,  then,  indeed,  there  is 
no  use  for  him,  and  should  the  day  ever  dawn  when 
the  muzzle  is  put  on  us,  I  for  one  would  rather  go  into 
the  street  and  earn  my  living  in  any  manner  whatso- 
ever, honorable,  than  to  be  dishonest  in  an  enforced 
defection  from  the  prime  duty  of  my  calling.  These 
things   must  be    learned  and  must  b^   spoken,  foy  the 


112  THE    HARVEST    FESTIVAL. 

storm  is  gathering,  and  unless  we  come  to  reason,  the 
blind  Samsons  of  our  day  will  pull  down  our  palaces, 
though  they  themselves  die  in  the  attempt — and  we  die 
with  them. 

This  Sukkah  reminds  us  of  our  whole  life.  What  is 
our  body  but  a  Sukkah?  To-morrow  it  will  be  broken, 
and  the  grave  will  cover  our  mortality.  What  is  our 
wealth — the  ornaments  to  this  Sukkah?  The  richest 
man  descends  naked  into  the  grave  as  does  the  poorest. 
Perhaps  a  casket  has  he  to  shield  him  against  the 
ravages  of  the  elements — the  other  but  a  box  of  pine 
board,  but  his  dust  is  dust,  and  the  dust  of  the  paujjer 
is  dust.  His  ornaments  he  cannot  take  along.  Yet 
there  is  something  that  is  left  when  the  Sukkah  is 
broken  up,  in  the  case  of  him  whose  life  was  full  of 
the  green  garlands  of  hope  and  rich  in  the  fruits  of 
humanity  and  of  duty.  Let  him  die — he  leaves  behind 
that  which  is  more  than  gold — a  good  name  and  a  shin- 
ing example.  Ah,  those  that  have,  ought  to  learn  their 
prerogatives.  Those  whom  God  has  blessed  with  the 
rich  harvest  might  to-day  do  much  for  lifting  up  all, 
were  they  to  write  their  name  into  the  hearts  of  their 
fellow-men  and  on  the  tablets  that  tell  in  great  institu- 
tions of  learning  and  others,  that  there  have  been  sturdy 
pilgrims  along  the  paths  of  life.  He  who  thus  makes 
his  whole  life  a  festival  of  Sukkoth,  who  gives  the  hos- 
pitality of  his  possibilities  to  stranger  and  to  Levite  and 
to  the  maid  servant  and  the  man  servant,  as  to  son  and 
to  daughter,  in  his  going  home  in  the  harvest  time  to 
meet  the  great  harvester,  death,  and  then  to  fall  asleep 
in  the  realm  of  light  that  is  divine— leaves  a  world 
richer  for  his  life,  poorer  in  his  death. 

And  so  let  us  in  this  spirit  remember  this  day  and 
its  symbol.  Farmers  we  were -farmers  Ave  should  try 
and   make  again  of  those  especially  that  now  herd  in 


THE   HARVEST   FESTIVAL.  113 

slums.  Patriots  we  are.  Not  Jerusalem  is  our  capital, 
but  Washington.  Ours  is  the  flag  with  the  stars  and 
stripes.  We  must  work  like  the  farmer  in  trustfulness 
and  hopefulness  -  worlc  one  for  the  other,  and  in  our 
vocation  know  that  the  true  recompense  for  whatever 
we  do,  is  in  the  service  of  our  higher  purposes.  And 
Judaism  is  the  religion  of  progress  which  teaches  these 
things.  If  w^e  live  as  a  Jew  should  live,  in  the  last 
hour,  when  the  Sukkah  breaks  and  the  grave  opens,  we 
shall  be  sped  home  by  a  melody  that  will  never  end, 
for  the  angels  sing  it  and  men  answer  it  "Blessed  is 
the  name  of  him  who  has  been  like  the  farmer,  a  joy- 
ful dispenser  of  blessings  to  others  of  his  kind." 


ISRAEL'S     RELIGION   A    MESSAGE    OF 
LIGHT  AND  GLADNESS. 


A    SEHMON    DELIVEKED    AT    THE    25tH   ANNIVEKSAllY    OF 

CONGREGATION    b'nAI    YEHUDAH,    KANSAS   CITY, 

BY    KEV.    DR.     SAMUEL     SALE,    ST.    LOUIS. 


It  is  singularly  fitting  and  significant  that  you 
should  liave  chosen  as  the  time  for  the  commemora- 
tion of  the  silver  jubilee  of  your  congregation  this  fes- 
tal hour,  bidding  farewell  to  the  "  Rejoicing  of  the  Law," 
still  ringing  with  its  joyous  melody  and  ushering  in 
the  sacred  Sabbath,  which  is  in  itself  the  great  sym- 
bol and  exponent  of  the  light  and  gladness  that  per- 
vade the  religion  of  Israel.  Indeed,  this  hour  must  l)e 
radiant  with  joy  and  gratification  for  you,  when  you 
remember  that  it  tokens  for  you  the  devotion  of  a 
quarter  of  a  century  to  the  highest  ideals  of  life,  of 
which  the  synagogue  has  always  been  the  living  em- 
bodiment. When  to-day  you  give  thanks  to  God  for 
tlie  rich  harvest  of  spiritual  blessings  that  you  have 
gathered,  and  praise  Him  that  He  has  permitted  you 
to  witness  this  day  of  your  rejoicing,  your  celebration 
takes  on  a  wider  significance.  It  is  not  merely  an 
evidence  of  your  faithfulness  and  zeal  in  the  past,  but 
it  becomes  an  earnest  and  steadfast  of  your  loyalty 
and  devotion  in  the  future,  to  the  same  lofty  principks 
for  Avhich  you  banded  together  twenty-fiA^e  years  ago. 
It  is  a  revival  of  your^  obligations  and  your    vows    to 

'"    (114) 


A   MESSAGE   OF   LIGHT   AND  GLADNESS.  115 

be  faithful  still  to  the  eternal  truths  that  were  the 
palladium  of  your  forefathers,  that  were  first  heralded 
in  Israel,  when  over  the  wide  world  there  lay  the  deep- 
est gloom  of  superstition  and  idolatry.  You  re-ded- 
icate your  lives  to  the  religion  of  light  and  joy. 
This  is  the  theme  of  this  hour,  as  it  is  the  burden 
and  strain  of  Israel's  song.  All  its  message  is  one  of 
joy  and  gladness,  all  its  tidings  tell  of  light  and  in- 
spiration, of  hope  and  courage  for  the  human  heart. 
On  the  opening  page  of  the  Bible,  in  the  portion  we 
shall  read  to-morrow,  is  written  with  matchless  beauty 
and  simplicity  the  purpose  and  purport  of  the  religion 
of  Israel.  When  chaos  and  confusion  reigned  supreme 
and  darkness  covered  the  deep,  the  creative  word  was 
heard,  "Let  there  be  light. "  And  as  its  magic  note  rang 
out  through  nature's  realm  the  divine  behest,  out  of 
chaos  came  the  cosmos,  a  world  of  order  and  of  beauty, 
out  of  the  dreary  waste  and  darkness.  The  Bible  is  not 
a  hand-book  of  science,  and  it  matters  little  to  us 
whether  its  narrative  concerning  the  origin  of  the  world 
meet  the  approval  of  the  learned  or  not,  nay,  grant 
it  to  be  wrong  in  its  statement  of  facts,  still  the 
truths  which  it  enfolds  are  such  as  science  can  neither 
displace  nor  disprove,  and  which,  despite  the  won- 
drous strides  which  we  have  made,  are  yet  as  im- 
portant to  mankind  as  on  the  day  when  first  they  were 
proclaimed.  Over  the  portal  that  leads  to  the  sanct- 
uary of  Israel's  faith  is  written  in  characters  that  cannot 
be  effaced,  the  truth  which  has  been  the  hope  and 
stay  of  the  human  race,  the  source  of  all  its  bliss 
and  inspiration,  "the  fountain  light  of  all  our  day, 
the  master  light  of  all  our  being " ;  it  is  the 
truth  that  there  is  a  central  light  in  the  universe,  a 
power  that  in  the  past  has  wrought  with  wisdom 
and  purposive    intelligence  the  order    and  harmony  of 


116  Israel's  religion 

this  world  of  matter,  and  has  shed  abroad  in  the 
human  heart  the  creative  sparii  which  shall  some 
day  make  aglow  this  mundane  sphere  with  the 
warmth  and  radiance  of  justice,  truth  and  loving 
kindness.  Let  there  be  light,  ye  sons  of  Judah  ! 
Open  the  windows  of  your  souls  and  let  in  the 
sunbeams  of  this  message  of  gladness !  The  belief 
in  God,  as  the  power  that  makes  for  righteous- 
ness, is  the  beginning  and  the  end  of  Israel's 
religion,  it  is  the  source  and  fountain  of  all  law 
and  all  life,  all  virtue  and  all  wisdom,  the  uh)]^  h^  IDpS. 
When  the  idea  of  God  is  firmly  fixed  in  the  human 
mind  and  deeply  rooted  in  the  human  heart,  it  becomes 
the  mainspring  of  a  life  of  honor  and  of  purity,  it  is 
the  seed  whence  spring  the  flower  and  fruit  of  all  vir- 
tues. As  in  the  beginning  all  was  desolation,  thus  in 
the  world  to-day  there  would  be  naught  but  darkness 
and  misery,  unless  it  were  illumined  by  the  faith  in 
Him   who  spake,  "Let  there  be  light." 

The  human  family  would  have  been  crushed  into 
dumb  despair,  were  it  not  for  this  uplifting  force  and 
perennial  spring  of  inspiration  and  of  courage.  "  The 
ox  knoweth  his  owner  and  the  ass  his  master's  crib ; 
Israel  doth  not  know,  my  people  doth  not  consider." 
The  prophet  in  Israel  was  of  the  opinion  that  it  was  as 
natural  for  man  to  rever  and  look  up  to  God,  as  for 
the  brute  creation  to  regard  man  as  its  superior.  As 
the  domestication  of  wild  animals  was  brought  about 
by  association  with  man,  thus  man  himself  has  contin- 
ually risen  in  the  scale  of  creation  by  lifting  his  eyes 
on  high,  so  that  we  may  truly  say,  the  process  of  civili-\/ 
zation   is  the  unfolding  of  the  God-idea  of  man.  /\ 

The  history  of  mankind  forms  an  integral  part  of  our 
book  of  revelation,  for  there  it  is,  especially  when  look- 
ing   into    the    past,  that  we    behold   the  gradual    and 


A   MESSAGE   OF  LIGHT   ANT)  GtADNES.S.  lit 

steady  development  of  mail  in  every  province  of  life 
and  thus  become  convinced  of  the  wisdom  and  good- 
ness that  underlie  all  things.  "  The  fool  saith  in  his 
heart  there  is  no  God, "and  yet  there  are  many  in  our 
own  days,  would-be  philosophers,  who  crave  the  honor 
of  wearing  the  cap  with  the  tinkling  bells.  The  air 
about  us  is  still  laden  with  confessed  or  implied  athe- 
ism, and  while  its  apostles  may  not  be  as  insolent  as 
they  were  in  declaiming  against  God,  nor  so  heady  and 
foolhardy  as  those  who  figured  in  the  carnival  of  reason 
a  century  ago,  they  have  only  assumed  the  mask  of  ag- 
nosticism, which  is  but  another  name  for  shame-faced 
atheism.  The  Jew  of  to-day  holds  as  firmly  as  ever  in 
the  past,  to  the  fundamental  principle  of  all  true  reli- 
gion ;  that ''  there  is  a  spirit  in  man,  and  the  breath  of  the 
Almighty  giveth  him  understanding."  This  faith  was 
the  joy  and  delight  of  his  existence,  a  pillar  of  cloud  by 
day,  a  pillar  of  light  by  night,  and  were  it  not  that  this 
belief  had  become  structural  in  his  very  being,  he  would 
have  been  swept  from  the  earth  by  the  storms  of  hatred 
and  persecution.  The  secret  of  the  Jews'  endurance  and 
almost  superhuman  strength  lay  in  the  fact  that  God  to 
him  was  no  mere  metaphysical  notion,  no  induction  and 
no  scientific  hypothesis  whereby  to  explain  the  origin  of 
the  world  of  matter,  but  God  to  him  was  a  living  and 
ever-present  reality,  the  Deity  enthroned  in  conscience, 
the  Being  all  holiness  who  "  will  not  look  upon  ini- 
quity, and  with  whom  evil  cannot  abide."  While  the 
philosophy  of  the  ancients  began  with  matter  and  ended 
Avith  mud,  the  religious  literature  of  the  Jew  begins 
with  God,  the  ordainer  of  good,  the  source  of  light,  and 
ends  with  man  as  the  image  of  God,  as  the  incarnation 
of  the  divine  on  earth. 

Here  we  come  upon  the  second  announcement  of  this 
message  of  joy  and  gladness.     No  matter  out  of  what 


lis  ISRAELIS  RELIGION 

and  how  the  world  was  fashioned,  suffice  us  to  know 
that  it  was  made  good,  and  for  the  reahzation  of  the 
good.  At  the  end  of  every  day's  creation  the  words 
are  repeated  as  if  hy  way  of  increasing  emphasis,  and 
*'God  saw  that  it  was  good."  Our  purpose  and  aim 
here  on  earth  is  "to  do  the  good"  and  herein  we  are 
not  hindered,  neither  by  cruel  fate,  nor  a  conspiracy 
of  the  powers  of  nature  that  are  superior  and  opposed 
to  the  God-given  faculties  of  man.  The  world  is  so 
ordered  and  all  of  its  parts  so  nicely  and  wisely  ad- 
justed, that  no  power  on  earth  can  foil  and  frustrate 
the  divine  efforts  of  man  to  make  of  this  world  a  home 
of  the  good  and  the  true,  a  paradise  of  righteousness 
and  justice.  There  be  powers  of  darkness  and  spirits 
of  evil  in  this  world,  that  work  sad  havoc  against  the 
ideal  interests  of  man  and  check  his  onward  course  to- 
wards the  divine  goal,  but  only  when  man  has  become 
estranged  from  God,  and  no  longer  hears  within  him- 
self the  voice  of  Him,  who  said :  "Let  there  be  light." 
The  doctrine  of  evil  as  a  positive  quantity  and  triumph- 
ant factor  separate  and  independent  of  God,  incarnate 
in  the  devil,  could  never  find  acceptance  in  Judaism. 
In  the  book  of  Job  Satan  himself  sits  in  the  council 
of  God,  and  all  the  forces  of  evil  according  to  the  glad 
tidings  of  Israel's  belief,  are  but  so  many  incitements 
to  the  energies  of  man  to  overcome  them  and  make 
them  subservient  to  the  cause  of  good.  Evil  is  but  a 
foil  to  the  good,  as  shade  to  the  sunlight,  to  make  its 
achievements  all  the  more  glorious.  In  a  world  that 
is  made  by  God,  and  in  which  his  light  shines  forth, 
God  must  indwell  the  devil  himself  How  quaintl}'^ 
and  how  wonderfully  this  inspiring  truth  is  blazoned 
in  the  Bible;  darkness  is  in  the  beginning.  It  is  not 
the  result  of  God's  creative  powder,  as  is  the  light  which 
comes  at  His  command.     We  are  not  poor,   miserable 


A  MESSAGK  OF  LIGHT  AND  GLADNESS.  119 

sinners,  and  we  are  not  here  to  sigh  and  lament  and 
hang  our  heads  in  gloom  and  sorrow.  This  world  is 
not  a  vale  of  tears  and  the  abode  and  den  of  vice  and 
wickedness  from  whose  snares  no  mortal  can  escape. 
We  are  not  to  make  ourselves  believe  that  this  life  is 
under  the  doom  of  original  sin,  and  that  man  is  by 
nature  degraded  and  depraved,  so  that  he  cannot  lift 
himself  up  by  his  own  moral  effort.  This  is  a  world 
of  light,  and  we  are  the  creatures  of  the  power  that 
fashioned  it. 

"Light  arises  for  the  righteous,  and  joy  to  the  up- 
right of  heart."  Light  and  joy  are  the  very  essence  of 
our  belief,  they  are  co-relatives  in  the  religion  of  the 
Jew.  To  walk  in  the  light  is  to  lend  ourself  to  the 
cause  of  righteousness,  and  the  only  joy  that  is  never 
marred  is  that  which  comes  from  an  earnest,  consci- 
entious and  unselfish  devotion  to  the  cause  of  the  right. 
Do  we  no  longer  need  the  blessing  and  inspiration  of 
this  simple  and  beautiful  lesson  of  our  ancestral  reh- 
gion?  Shall  we  hearken  to  the  ravens  of  our  day, 
who  keep  croaking  into  our  ear,  the  dismal  note,  that 
life  is  not  worth  living.  Indeed,  if  pleasure  and  en- 
joyment and  clogging  of  the  senses  be  its  end  and  aim, 
it  is  not  worth  the  pains  we  are  at  to  sustain  it  ;  if 
it  be  but  a  mad  foam-ocean  of  passion,  and  a  wild 
whirling  eddy  of  getting  and  grabbing,  its  price  is 
overpaid,  no  matter  how  trifling  it  may  be.  But  if 
I  jihe  principle  of  our  religion  old  and  ever  young,  still 
holds  good,  "  Behold,  I  have  put  before  thee  life  and 
the  good,  death  and  the  evil, "(men  our  being  here  is  a 
golden  opportunity  and  a  sacred  obligation.)  According 
to  this  gladdening  message  to  live  is  to^  do  good,  to 
regard  one's  self  as  an  instrument  in  the  hand  of  God 
for  the  working  out  of  the  cause  of  the  true,  the  good 
and  the  beautiful.    / 


120  Israel's  religion 

He  who  permits  the  name  of  Jew  to  hang  loosely 
upon  him,  he  who  stands  idly  by,  when  by  word  or 
deed  he  might  champion  the  cause  of  the  weak  and 
down-trodden,  and  further  the  coming  of  the  Kingdom 
of  God  on  earth,  by  valiantly  serving  in  the  army  of 
truth  and  righteousness,  be  it  in  the  rank  and  file,  in 
the  van,  or  in  the  rear,  he  is  false  to  the  ideals  of  our 
household.  To  live  is  to  do  good,  to  give  counte- 
nance to  wrong  actively  or  passively,  is  to  be  dead  in 
the  living  body. 

Living  thou  dost  not  live — 

If  Mercy's  spring  run  dry, 
What  Heaven  hath  lent  thee,   wilt  thou   freely  give, 

Dying  thou   wilt  not  die. 

Our  sages  have  pithily  and  pointedly  expressed  this 
sentiment,  when  they  said  that  the  righteous  are  called 
the  living,  even  after  they  are  dead,  and  the  wicked 
are   called  the  dead,    even   while   they  live. 

The  Jew  who  in  private  or  public  life  soils  the  fair 
name  of  this  religion  of  absolute  trust  in  God,  and 
righteous  conduct,  is  a  traitor  to  his  cause.  Those  who 
tling  their  arrows  barbed  with  envenomed  spite  and  pre- 
judice against  us  cannot  harm  us.  As  long  as  Israel 
clings  to  these  simple  tenets  of  its  faith,  it  is  invulner- 
able and  invincible.  Its  history  is  the  strongest  proof 
of  the  superiority  of  mind  over  matter,  of  the  absolute 
futility  and  folly  of  opposing  brute  force  to  moral  con- 
science and  conviction,  intent,  with  single  purpose  on 
the  worship  of  the  Most  High.  In  the  w^ords  of  Scrip- 
ture: We  have  struggled  with  God,  against  men,  and  we 
have  been  victorious,  and  in  this  struggle  our  fathers 
have  suffered  a  martyrdom  compared  to  which  that  of 
all  the  races  of  man  are  as  a  molehill  to  a  mountain. 

Thank  God,  the  dawn  of  the  day  our  prophets  fore- 
saw is  at  hand.     The  ideals  of  our  past  have  been  grad- 


A   MESSAGE   6F   LIGHT   AND   GLADNESS.  121 

ually  finding  their  way  into  the  thought-life  of  man, 
and  though  dark  clouds  still  lower  upon  the  house  of 
Israel  in  foreign  lands,  the  sunlight  of  freedom  and 
humanity  will  drive  them  away.  Monarchs  and  mon- 
archies have  always  heen  known  as  ingrates,  but  here 
in  this  blessed  land  of  liberty  the  Jew,  thanks  to  the 
genius  of  our  constitution,  is  the  peer  of  his  fellow-citi- 
zens. In  Europe  you  must  seek  the  synagogue  of  the 
Jew  in  by-ways  and  narrow  courts ;  hidden  away  from 
public  gaze,  they  are  a  sad  commentary  on  the  stand- 
ing of  the  Jew  in  the  past,  and  partly  indicate  his 
social  position  to-day.  In  this  country  the  synagogue 
stands  out  boldly  and  prominently.  Here  above  all 
other  lands,  we  have  cause  to  rejoice  and  be  glad. 
Arise,  shine  forth,  for  thy  light  has  come.  Where 
could  we  have  a  better  opportunity  to  unfold  the  glo- 
ries of  our  faith,  than  upon  this  soil,  and  in  this  age. 
Armed  with  the  enthusiasm  and  heroism  of  our  fathers, 
and  wedded  to  the  ancient  ideals  of  our  prophets,  Is- 
rael could  carry  a  new  world  by  storm.  Let  this  be 
the  cause  of  your  jo}^  to-day.  Thank  God,  that  He  has 
made  you  the  heirs  of  the  ages  gone  by,  and  the  richest 
spiritual  legacy  in  the  annals  of  history,  one  for  which 
mankind  to  share  with  you,  must  become  your  ki  Ih 
and  kin.  Let  us  rededicate  ourselves  on  this  day  of 
your  joy,  to  the  God  of  our  fathers.  Maj^  the  fountain 
of  our  life  be  blessed,  and  may  it  pour  forth  its  limpid 
streams  of  light  and  law  and  truth  into  the  broad  main 
of  humanity.  Come  ye  O  house  of  Jacob,  and  let  us 
walk  in  the  light  of  Him  who  spake,  Let  there  be 
light! 


THE  ANCIENT   ANTI-SEMITE  AND  HIS 
MODERN  SUCCESSORS. 


A  DISCOURSE  BY  EMIL  G.  HIRSCH. 


If  twenty  years  ago  some  one  should  have  pro- 
phesied that  the  day  of  the  Maccabees  would  in  this 
our  broad  and  enlightened  centur}^,  ever  assume  a 
deeper  meaning  than  goes  with  a  mere  historical 
memory;  or  should  have  suggested  that  this  day 
might  ever  again  take  upon  itself  the  guise  of  an 
appeal  for  modern  Jews  to  don  their  armor  of  defense 
and  to  gather  around  their  flag,  he  would  have  been 
put  down  as  a  reasonless  grumbler  and  inveterate 
pessimist — as  one  not  satisfied  even  with  the  sun's 
light  because  the  sun's  disk  occasionally  shows  spots. 
We  all  believed  that  the  night  of  media^valism  had 
passed  forever,  and  were  confident,  jubilant,  because  so 
many  triumphs  had  been  won  by  the  sciences,  that 
the  day  of  religious^  bigotry  had  set  to  rise  no  more. 
The  whole  race  stood  on  tip-toes,  every  man  curiously 
craning  the  neck  and  pricking  the  ear  to  learn  of 
some  new  and  marvelous  discover}^  We  were  proud 
of  our  rulership  in  the  vast  and  wonderful  domain 
of  nature.  We  boasted  that  the  stars  had  confided 
to  us  the  secret  of  our  birth,  we  were  sure  that  we 
could  command  in  reality,  as  Joshuah  did  in  the  le- 
gend, the  sun  to  stand  still,  for  we  indeed  know  how  to 
lengthen  the  realm  of  the  day  and  shorten  the  terrors  of 

(122) 


'THE   ANCIENT  ANTI-SEMITE.  1^3 

the  night.  The  ocean  was  at  our  feet  a  bound  slave; 
rocks  had  to  yield  to  our  insistence  and  open  admission 
to  their  innermost  chambers;  mountain  ranges  that 
divided  nation  from  nation  were  .forced  to  become  bold 
and  noble  gateways  of  union  through  which  the  iron 
rivets  and  links  were  laid  to  bring  the  laughing 
south  in  closest  intimacy  with  the  sterner  north 
across  the  eternal  snows  of  the  Alps;  and  where 
land  interposed  its  barrier  to  the  free  flow  of  inter- 
communication between  man  and  his  fellow  tenant 
of  our  globe,  our  science  enabled  us  to  apply  the 
scalpel  and  the  knife  in  a  surgery  which  became  the 
most  signal  accomplishment  of  modern  engineering. 
What  for  ages  untold,  ever  since  the  mighty  geo- 
logical forces  had  ceased  to  tinker  and  to  tamper 
with  our  world,  had  stood  unmoved  and  uninterfered 
with,  was  opened  with  a  bold  incision  of  our  in- 
struments, into  a  new  bed  for  the  more  willing 
waves  of  two  oceans.  The  umbilical  cord  between 
Europe  and  Africa  was  cut  and  commerce,  white- 
winged  messenger  of  peace,  unfolded  her  sails  and 
the  heavily  freighted  keels  of  swimming  palaces,  gam- 
boled cheerfully  and  cheeringly  on  the  newly-created 
nuptial   couch   of  two  seas. 

And  in  the  domain  of  literature  certainly  a  new 
spirit  seemed  to  have  coined  word  and  attuned  voice. 
In  the  arts  the  lines  of  race  and  of  nation  appeared  to 
have  been  overleaped.  The  dream  of  the  federation  of 
man  appeared  about  to  become  real.  In  religion  the 
old  demon  of  distrust  had  at  last  been  chained— one 
common  religion  certainly,  though  rich  in  varied  dialects, 
called  the  best  among  men  to  one  law  of  life.  The 
old  superstitions  had  had  their  day  and  were  no 
more.  Twenty  years  ago,  the  time  for  joy  and  trust 
did  not  allow,  according  to  far-spread  conceit,  any  other 


124  THE   ANCIENT   ANTt  i^EMTTE 

intonation  })ut  that  of  exultation  at  this  victory  finally 
won  and  forever  in  its  fruitage  made  the  grand  pos- 
session  of  all  mankind. 

But  even  at  that  time,  there  were  those  who  main- 
tained that  this  psean  of  victory  was  premature.  The 
captain  on  his  ship,  casting  a  glance  at  the  barometer, 
can  read  off  the  signs  of  warning,  of  a  gathering  hur- 
ricane when  his  passengers  are  still  whiling  away  the 
heavy  hours  of  an  ocean  voyage  with  unmeaning 
sport,  or  dull  halting  conversation.  A  quaint  old  Ger- 
man superstition  warns  us  that  ere  house  is  about  to 
fall,  weird  noises  may  be  heard  of  spirits  at  work — 
night-born  spirits  running  through  the  doomed  palace 
with  feet  whose  gliding  touch  over  wall  and  floor  is 
distinctly  noticeable  to  the  few  chosen  ones  endowed 
with  capacit}^  to  apprehend  these  mysterious  omens. 
In  an  old  Arab  tradition  it  is  writ  that  in  the  very 
night  before  a  mighty  dynasty  was  dethroned,  strange 
sounds  issued  from  the  graves  which  the  dervishes 
and  the  faithful  understood  full  well  to  be  an  alarm 
sounded  by  the  uncanny  tongue  of  death  and  the 
dead.  And  so  there  were,  even  twenty  years  ago, 
when  all  men  had  been  lulled  to  sleep  by  the  con- 
fidence that  our  age  was  the  age  of  fulfilment,  no 
longer  a  century  of  preparation,  those  who  had  heard 
the  voices  from  the  grave,  who  understood  the  strange 
moving  to  and  fro  of  the  spirits  of  the  night  in  the 
doomed  palace ;  those  who  read  from  the  barometer 
the  signs  and  warnings  of  an  impending  tornado — 
their  voices  were  not  heeded;  they  were  held  to  be 
Cassandras  speaking  of  evil — the  reflection  and  projec- 
tion of  their  own  melancholy,  but  not  the  shadowed 
fringe  of  a  possibility  about  to  become  real.  And  yet, 
notwithstanding  the  oft-repeated  plea  that  our  age 
need  not    fear    another    invasion    of   the   minions    and 


AND   HIS   MODERN  SUCCESSORS.  125 

ministers  of  darkness,  to-day  we  know  that  Maccabee 
is  not  merely  a  memory  to  us ;  it  is  an  appeal  that 
the  fight  waged  erst  on  Palestine's  historic  soil  is  on 
to-day  again,  that  to-day  once  more  the  trumpet  of  the 
alarm  must  sound  in  Israel  that  each  one  of  us  who 
believes  that  not  for  himself  alone,  but  for  humanity, 
he  holds  treasures  vital,  must  don  the  armor  and  draw 
the  sword  for  defense,  perhaps  even  for  the  attack  in 
order  to  insure  all  the  better  the  strategy  of  the  de- 
fensive movement. 

Anti-Semitism,  the  spiritual  pestilence  of  our  day,  has 
gained  a  foothold  on  almost  every  soil  under  God's  sun. 
There  is  not  a  nation  but  has  suffered  from  one  or 
more  outbreaks  of  this  epidemic.  It  is  not  merely  in 
Russia,  herself  a  slave  to  a  slave-master;  it  is  not 
merely  in  Germany,  distracted  by  internal  dissensions ; 
it  is  even  in  France,  the  child  of  the  French  revolution 
and  also  in  England,  though  there  most  faintly,  where 
the  gospel  of  hatred  finds  voices,  and  often  ready  audi- 
tors. America  too  is  suffering  from  an  invasion.  Not 
only  since  last  week  when  one  has  drifted  to  these 
shores  whose  name  is  too  profane  to  be  uttered  in  a 
spot  devoted  to  high  instruction,  but  for  years  and 
years  in  this  country  the  prejudice  has  been  alive;  it 
has  taken  on  a  form  which  of  all  forms  in  which  this 
distemper  vests  itself,  is  perhaps  the  most  despicable, 
the  meanest,  and  at  the  same  time  the  most  cowardly. 

Thus,  then,  wherever  to-day  the  Jews  be, — in  Europe 
or  America,  in  Asia  or  in  Africa,  even  in  distant  Aus- 
tralia, the  Maccabean  contest  has  an  actual  interest. 
But  its  lessons  are  those  that  we  need,  that  we  might 
not  despair,  but  stand  our  ground. 

What  is  fundamental  to  this  hatred  of  the  Jew  now 
masking  itself  under  the  high-sounding  name  of  anti- 
Semitism?     The  situation  in  which  Antioch  Epiphanes 


126  THE    ANCIENT    ANTI-SEMITE 

did  place  the  Jews  of  his  day,  is  to  a  nicety  that  is  al- 
most appalling,  repeated  in  our  own  generation.  Anti- 
och  Epiphanes  does  in  his  statesmanship)  illustrate  all 
the  motive  purposes,  the  impulses,  the  passions  of  those 
that  to-day  would  raise  the  standard  of  the  Crusaders 
against  the  Jew,  against  the  Semite,  against  Judaism. 
This  is  the  power  of  history,  that  it  holds  up  in  the 
figures  of  the  past  the  mirror  of  the  present,  and  he 
who  understands  what  events  have  been,  recognizes  his 
own  physiognomy.  He  therefore  may  draw  from  the 
peep  into  this  glass  either  encouragement  or  feel,  as  it 
were,  the  lash  of  censure  and  condemnation.  Yea,  his- 
tory is  the  voice  of  God.  If  Sinais  do  not  thunder;  if 
Carmels  be  silent;  if  Golgothas  have  no  inspiration;  if 
those  high  mountains  from  which  the  prophet  spoke 
have  lost  their  dialect ;  if  the  stars  do  not  sing  of  God, 
and  the  oceans  do  not  fall  in  with  responsive  amens ; 
if  the  fields  be  hushed  into  silence  unsyllabled  and  the 
forests  have  lost  their  cunning  of  articulation,  it  is  his- 
tory that  proclaims  His  one  purpose  and  His  guidance 
upward  into  ever-developing  righteousness.  History  is 
the  pulpit  that  has  eloquence  such  as  never  was  given 
to  man,  and  its  is  the  proclamation  which  all  philoso- 
phy can  but  verify  and  all  skepticism  is  incompetent 
to  deny.  History,  by  showing  in  the  past  centuries  the 
same  troubles  and  tribulations,  the  same  triumphs  and 
the  same  driving  forces  (as  the  Germans  say,)  as  to- 
day are  besetting  the  child  of  the  most  recent  hours, 
does  speak  in  the  tones  which  the  prophet  re-echoed 
when  he  said,  "Not  by  might  and  not  by  power,  but 
through  my  spirit,  saith  God." 

Yea,  history  is  the  prophet  described  in  the  words 
of  the  second  Isaiah:  "The  spirit  of  God  is  upon  me, 
he  hath  appointed  me  to  preach  good  tidings  unto 
the  meek,   he  hath    sent  me   to   bind   up   the   broken- 


AND    HIS   MODERN   SUCCESSORS.  127 

hearted,  to  proclaim  liberty  to  the  captives,  the  open- 
ing of  the  prison  to  them  that  are  bound,  to  proclaim 
the  era  of  acceptance  unto  God,  the  day  of  vengeance 
unto  our  Lord,  to  comfort  all  that  mourn,  to  appoint 
unto  them  that  mourn  in  Zion  a  garland  for  ashes,  the 
oil  of  joy  for  their  weeping,  and  that  they  might  be 
called  trees  of  righteousness,  the  planting  of  God  Him- 
self." 

It  is  generally  the  superficial  impression  in  Jewish 
-  and  non-Jewish  circles  that  the  root  of  this  Upas  tree 
is  religious  prejudice.  Antioch  Epiphanes,  the  cultured 
king  of  his  day,  the  disciple  of  Rome,  if  he  had  been 
prompted  to  issue  his  decree  by  religious  prejudice, 
would  have  been  a  strange  anomaly  in  the  days  of  old. 
Ingersoll  is  correct — this  cannot  be  disputed — classic 
antiquity  is  free  from  the  spirit  of  religious  bigotry  flam- 
ing forth  in  the  unholy  fire  of  religious  persecution. 
Tolerance, — religious  tolerance,  is  characteristic  especially 
of  the  one  people  that  seems  above  all  others  to  incar- 
nate the  working  ideas  of  the  ancient  times,  the  Roman. 
Rome  is  tolerant  of  religious  differences  because  Rome 
is  organized  cynicism.  The  Roman  is  an  atheist  by 
nature  and  by  constitution.  He  cares  not  for  the  gods. 
The  gods  are  nothing  for  him,  but  if  others  wish  to  toy 
with  these  bubbles  of  fancy,  he  will  not  interfere.  When 
the  Romans  captured  a  town  they  left  the  gods  undis- 
turbed. The  Romans  never  interfered  with  the  religious 
rites  of  such  as  they  conquered. 

But  we  are  confi-onted  with  Antioch  Epiphanes,  a 
Greek  trained  in  Rome,  where  he  spent  his  most  impres- 
sionable years,  issuing  a  decree  of  religious  persecution! 
This  interpretation  cannot  be  held  to  represent  his  mo- 
tive or  to  correspond  to  the  actualities  of  his  day.  He 
was  not  animated  by  a  religious  spirit  of  bigotry.  Nor 
is  anti-Semitism  to-day  the  off'-spring  of  religious  or  ir- 


128  THE   ANCIENT    ANTI-SEMITE 

religious  intolerance.  Now  and  then  an  anti-Semite  may 
cloak  his  inAvard  motive  under  the  assumed  guise  of 
fanatical  devotion  to  religious  truth.  He  may  pretend 
to  be  anxious  that  the  Jew  be  saved  unto  Christ.  He 
may  'parade  his  impatience  at  the  stubbornness  and 
blindness  of  the  Jew.  Christianity  as  such  has  naught 
to  do  with  anti-Semitism.  The  Christian  believes  that 
the  Jew  is  preserved  for  a  purpose,  the  Catholic  church 
insists  upon  the  Jew  remaining  a  Jew  lest  the  historical 
proofs  of  Christian  authenticity  be  weakened  by  his  dis- 
appearance. And  even  so  has  the  devout  and  resolute 
Protestant  the  certainty  that  the  Jew  as  a  Jew  must 
survive.  He  is  destined  to  return  to  Palestine  that 
prophecy  might  find  its  fulfilment.  Moreover,  one  who 
believes  in  the  Christ  must  be  actuated, if  he  be  Christ- 
like, by  motives  of  love  to  the  people  of  Christ.  Christ 
was  a  Jew,  and  had  to  be  a  Jew,  according  to  Protestant 
theology.  The  apostles  were  Jews,  and  had  to  be  Jews, 
according  to  Protestant  doctrine,  ^e  Old  Testament  is 
the  cornerstone  upon  which  rises  th§;.  new  ;  without  the 
old,  the  new  becomes  incomprehensible.  It  is,  then,  not 
true  that  religious  bigotry  is  the  fo^itain  of  poison 
from  which  rushes  out  the  turbid  tide  of  hatred  that 
now   has   flooded   the   whole   world   and  our   age. 

Of  course,  unintentionally  perhaps,  religious  instruc- 
tion is  helpful  to  the  ease  with  which  the  hue  and 
cry  of  the  anti-Semite  is  tolerated  by  our  generation. 
Children  have  no  sense  of  historical  perspective.  As 
the  little  baby  when  it  makes  its  first  attempt  at 
seizing  the  far-off"  object  does  not  calculate  the  dis- 
tance, but  stretches  its  little  fist  as  readily  to  grasp 
the  light  in  the  ceiling  as  to  take  hold  of  the  little 
toy  at  its  feet;  so  children  for  a  long  time  after  they 
have  outgrown  the  nursery,  put  forth  their  intellectual 
prehensiles   as  strangely  after  the  distant  occurrences  as 


ANt)   His   MODERN   SUCCESSORS.  129 

they  might  for  the  nearer  events.  Centuries  have  no 
value  for  the  child's  mind.  Yea,  we,  the  adults  have 
considerable  difficulty  in  estimating  time  distances. 
We  may  speak  of  yesterday  as  a  cognizable,  realizable 
quantity  of  time  spent.  We  may  have  a  distinct  con- 
sciousness of  the  gap  that  yawns  between  this  hour 
and  the  corresponding  one  twelve  months  ago,  but  the 
farther  those  intervals  stretch  out  their  lengths  the  less 
vivid  remain  the  distinctions  of  intervals  and  epochs. 
I  have  no  doubt,  at  the  name  of  Csesar  even  many 
who  are  educated  have  to  make  a  mental  effort  in 
order  to  grasp  the  fact  that  Csesar  lived  so  and  so 
many  centuries  before  America  was  discovered;  and 
when  one  speaks  of  the  mighty  empires  of  Asia  or 
Africa,  whose  first  king  probably  ascended  the  throne 
four  thousand  years  before  our  era,  or  when  one  reads 
of  the  many  dynasties  that  wielded  scepter  in  Egypt, 
and  century  upon  century  is  required  to  measure  their 
passage  across  the  stage  of  history,  there  is  none  of  us 
that  without  great  mental  labor,  learned  though  he  be, 
carries  away  a  distinct  imi^ression  of  the  great  gulf  of 
separation  between  this  hour  and  the  cradle  day  of 
the   mighty  monarchies  under    discussion. 

And  now  teach  a  child  history.  He  will  not  be 
able  to  locate  an  event  that  occurred  or  is  said  to 
have  occurred  eighteen  hundred  years  ago  at  the 
proper  distance  from  one  that  possibly  may  have  taken 
place  a  few   years  ago. 

It  is  due  to  this  circumstance  that  the  Sunday- 
schools  of  the  orthodox  Christian,  and  alas,  also  those 
non-Christian  liberals— the  Sunday-schools  of  ethical 
culture— for  instance — no  less  than  those  of  the  Cath- 
olics and  Evangelicals,  in  teaching  that  at  a  certain 
time  the  Jews  crucified  one  who  represents  the  noblest, 
the    best    that    humanity    could   ever  garb    in    human 


130  THE   ANCIENT   ANTI-SEMITE 

clay,  do  prepare  the  heart  of  children  for  the  recep- 
tion of  the  seed  of  prejudice.  Perhaps  evangelical 
Christianity  cannot  help  teaching  this  -  perhaps  ortho- 
dox Christianity  must  insist  upon  the  crucifixion  be- 
cause it  is  woven  into  the  fundamental  dogma  of  the 
Christian  church.  Give  up  the  crucifixion  and  Chris- 
tianity falls — the  God  crucified  is  a  God  redeemer,  a 
God  not  crucified  would  not  unlock  the  gates  of  sal- 
vation. My  quarrel  is  not  with  them  for  teaching 
what  their  religion  deems  essential.  There  are  honest 
Christians.  I  do  not  belong  to  those  liberals  who  deny 
the  possibility  that  men  may  honestly  think  differently 
from  them.  I  do  not  hold,  that  men  of  learning  can- 
not subscribe  to  these  dogmas,  or  if  they  do  that 
they  are  hypocrites.  I  for  one  will  not  claim  that  we 
are  learned  for  our  denials,  and  that  someone  else  is 
a  fool  and  knave  because  he  views  history  and  the 
fundamental  needs  of  the  human  heart  from  an  angle 
of  vision  that  we  reject  as  improper.  There  are  honest 
men  that  teach  the  drama  of  Golgotha  as  a  bitter 
fact.  There  are  men  of  the  profoundest  scholarship 
that  are  convinced  of  its  truth.  This  teaching  is  a 
misfortune,  from  one  point  of  view,  for  us  Jews;  from 
another,   it  is  not. 

Trial  is  not  an  affliction.  Trial  confers  the  messi- 
anic crown,  and  if  we  are  messiahs,  as  I  believe  we 
are, — if  we,  Israel — the  spiritual  Israel,  are  for  a  mes- 
sianic destiny  and  the  messianic  dignity,  w^e  must  ex- 
pect to  be  tried  and  to  suffer.  The  child  cannot  dis- 
tinguish when  it  hears  the  story  of  Jesus 's  death,  be- 
tween the  Jew  that  was  and  the  Jew  that  is.  That 
the  Jews  did  not  crucify  Christ,  is  my  conviction ;  but 
even  if  they  had,  what  share  have  I  in  the  deed  of 
my  remote  ancestors?  Of  course,  in  a  cei-tain  sense, 
I   have.     History   imputes  guilt    and    imparts   merit  by 


ANT)  HIS   MODERN   SUCCESSORS.  131 

the  wonderfully  mysterious  law  of  descent  and  his- 
torical continuity.  Nevertheless  the  Sunday-school  is 
fruitful  of  undue  prejudice  against  the  Jew,  for  the 
child  confounds  the  Jew  of  to-day  with  the  Jew  who 
is  said  to  have  affixed  to  the  cross  the  "sweet  and 
beloved  and  blessed  Jesus."  For  a  liberal  to  teach  in 
the  strain  of  evangelical  orthodoxy,  is  indeed  prejudice. 
An  orthodox  Christian  in  insisting  upon  his  view  of 
the  last  scenes  in  the  life  of  his  savior,  is  loyal  to 
the   dogmatic   positions   of  his   church. 

With  all  this,  it  is  safe  to  say  that  it  is  not  re- 
ligious prejudice  which  is  the  main  channel  of  spread- 
ing anti-Semitism.  Antioch  Epiphanes  was  not  a  re- 
ligious bigot.  What  cared  he  for  the  gods  ?  Religion 
for  him  was  a  means  to  an  end.  It  was  a  con- 
venient shield  behind  whicli  to  hide  his  political 
aims,   to   veil   the   real  principles  of  his   statesmanship. 

To-day  we  have  various  species  of  anti-Semites, 
and  first  is  the  Russian  type.  What  is  at  the  root 
of  Russian  anti-Semitism?  The  ambition  cultivated 
by  the  ruling  Russian  statesmen  that  Russia  shall 
become  a  national  unit,  that  in  Russia  in  religion, 
in  custom,  in  language,  in  the  composition  of  the 
people  there  shall  be  but  one  exclusive  standard  of 
national  life.  We  call  this  a  centralization  on  the 
basis  of  national  unity.  That  this  system  which 
apprehends  national  unity  as  possible  only  when 
racially,  linguistically,  in  custom  and  religion,  the  na- 
tion be  a  unit,  should  have  been  born  a  child  of  our 
day,  no  one  who  has  any  knowledge  of  the  philos- 
ophy of  our  times  can  marvel  at.  Such  a  political 
creed  had  to  be  framed  in  the  days,  the  waning  days 
of  this  ebbing  19th  century.  Materialism  here  draws 
its  direct  and  inevitable  inferences.  Blood  makes  the 
man.     Man  is  but  a  beast.     The  race  decides  the  quality 


1^^  THE  ANCIENT  ANTI-SEMITE 

of  the  brute.  Nations  are  not  the  outcome  of  spiritual 
forces.  They  are  the  result  of  local  accidents — of 
geographical  positions,  but  within  the  circumscribed 
limits  of  national  territory  there  should  be  racial 
unity,  and  whatever  resists  the  intention  of  so  mixing 
the  inhabitants  that  from  the  process  racial  unity  shall 
event,  must  be  ground  down  into  its  elemental  prim- 
aries, that  these  all  the  more  readily  enter  into  the 
amalgum  to  be  evolved  from  the  chemical  retorts  oper- 
ating upon  the  theory  that  national  unity  is  of  ne- 
cessity conditioned  on  racial  unity. 

And  in  the  same  spirit  it  is  assumed  to  be 
axiomatic  that  language  too  must  be  one.  A  nation 
must  have  a  national  language,  there  can  be  no  dualism 
of  language  in  one  national  home.  Nor  may  religion 
as  one  of  the  manifestations  of  the  national  spirit,  be 
other  than  national  and  one.  All  this  accords  with 
the  orthodoxy  of  modern  materialistic  philosophers. 
The  fanatics  of  this  school  have  misapplied  the 
Darwinian  theory.  They  have  heard  something  about 
descent  or  selection,  and  because  Darwinism,  in  the 
lower  manifestations  of  life,  undoubtedly  strikes  the 
ringing  key-note  of  truth,  they  would  apply  its  can- 
ons to  the  higher  domain  of  man.  Denying  that 
man  is  higher  in  the  scale  of  being,  they  contend  that 
he  is  under  the  one  law  which  is  typical  and  auto- 
cratic in  the  lower  forms.  The  Russian  statesmanship 
of  to-day  is  thus  the  outgrowth  of  the  materialistic 
philosophy  of  our  age. 

On  whom  now  shall  this  process  of  crushing  all  in- 
dividuality that  the  desired  uniformity  might  event, 
be  first  tried?  Naturally  on  the  Jew.  Complain  not, 
ye  Jews  of  faint  heart!  You  cannot  deny  it,  and  you 
cannot  help  it.  It  is  the  function  of  the  Jew  to  be 
history's    field    of   experimentation,  in    which    is  tried 


AND    HIS   MODERN   SUCCESSORS.  133 

whatever  of  error  man  would  tempt,  that  by  the  Jew's 
experience  men  may  learn  the  futility  of  their  efforts 
to  thwart  God's   higher  ends  and   cross  His    methods. 

The  Jews  are  what  the  Germans  would  call  the 
''Versuchsvolk,"  the  great  laboratory  of  experimentation 
with  all  sorts  of  political  and  social  doctrine;  it  is 
by  the  Jew  that  the  world  has  learned  the  fallacy  or 
correctness  of  methods  tried  and  of  principles  applied. 
It  is  a  pity  that  so  few  of  the  Jews  understand  their 
history  and  its  relations  to  the  times.  If  they  did, 
they  would  know  that  theirs  is  an  essential  if  unique 
service  to  mankind,  and  would  find  in  this  the  com- 
pensation for  all  that  is  amiss.  Is  there  higher  glory 
than  to  teach  by  one's  own  suffering,  by  one's  own 
resistance  to  error,  others  the  error  of  their  ways  ?  I 
know  of  no  higher  task.  I  know  of  no  greater  dig- 
nity— I  know  of  no  nobler  station  and  function  than 
this,  and  so)  I  am  gladdened  by  my  burden.  So 
were  the  thinking  Jews  at  all  times.  It  is  merely 
those  that  have  no  thought,  that  have  no  knowledge 
of  the  wonderful  destiny  which  is  theirs  by  birth, 
that  complain   and   cry  out.jj  C^ 

The  Russian  Jews  do  not  complain.  They  have  the 
instinctive  and  unconscious  knowledge  that  thej^  are 
there  for  a  purpose.  They  may  not  have  a  clear  com- 
prehension of  this  purpose,  but  they  do  not  lament. 
We  often  affect  to  be  the  superiors  of  these  Russian 
Jews.  Yet  they  are  true  aristocrats !  Devotion  to  prin- 
ciple confers  the  knighthood  in  the  hierarchy  of  the 
spiritual  and  moral  forces  of  man;  and  tested  by  this 
alkali,  these  Russian  Jews  appear  to  be  our  better. 
They  suffer.  Would  we  suffer?  They  do  not  desert. 
We  do  dtsert.  They  migrate  when  the  mere  pretense 
of  baptism  would  save  them  from  fate's  cruelty  -  save 
them?    No,  would  place  their  foot  on  almost  the  top 


134  THE   ANCIENT   ANTI-SEMITE 

rung  of  the  ladder  of  honor  and  distinction  in  the 
Russian  empire.  Here  is  Russia  under  the  spell  of  its 
mistaken  notion  that  a  Russian  nation  can  only  exist 
if  there  be  racial  linguistic  and  religious  unity,  and 
the  Jew  must  suffer  for  this  conceit  of  his  co-nation- 
alists and  must  prove  as  he  will  prove,  as  he  has 
proven,  the  fatality  and  fallacy  of  this  Russian  states- 
manship  and   its   ideals. 

Antioch  Epiphanes,  too,  was  actuated  by  a  wrong 
view  of  what  constitutes  a  nation.  He  aspired  after 
national  unity  and  national  strength  dependent  upon 
artificial,  mechanical,  racial  and  perhaps  linguistic  unity. 
He  learned  the  lesson  by  the  Maccabees  that  his 
statesmanship  was  fatal,  radically  wrong  in  its  prin- 
ciples. Russia  will,  too,  learn  this.  All  accusations 
against  the  Russian  Jews  are  mere  subterfuges  to  mask 
this   national  fanaticism    for   Russian  unification. 

If  the  Russian  Jew  were  as  he  is  painted  by  his 
sworn  enemies;  if  the  Russian  Jew  were  the  very  in- 
carnation of  all  that  is  low,  vulgar,  fiendish,  all  that 
is  criminal,  all  tliat  is  immoral,  this  frightful  state 
would  be  an  accusation  not  against  him,  the  Russian 
Jew,  but  against  the  Russian  Czar  and  his  ministers. 
Are  they  still  men  who  allow  other  men  to  sink  so 
low;  who  contrive  and  conspire  to  deprive  human  be- 
ings of  the  possibilities  of  honor  and  regard  for  their 
humanity?  Every  criminal  is  the  outcry  of  society's 
conscience,  and,  if  there  be  in  Russia  three  millions 
of  Jewish  criminals  —and  the}^  say  there  are — this  sad 
circunistance  is  a  scathing  rebuke  of  the  Russian  treat- 
ment of  fellow-man ;  and  if  Russia  suffers,  I  grant  for 
the  moment  that  it  does— if  Russia  suffers  from  its 
Jews,  Russia  has  to  blame  no  one  but  herself. 
"Mine  is  the  vengeance,"  saith  God,  and  this  is  the 
retribution  of  God:   every   social    crime,   while   it    may 


AND    HIS   M0D?:RN    SUCCESSORS.  135 

crush   one  fellow-man  or  another,  does   recoil  upon  the 
concocter    of  the  scheme. 

But  is  the  Russian  Jew  this  incarnation  of  low  and 
fiendish  purpose?  The  wonder  is  not  that  he  is  what 
he  is— the  wonder  is  that  he  is,  in  comparison  with 
others,  not  worse  than  he  is.  You  cannot  compare 
the  Russian  Jew  to  us,  though  in  many  things  he  is 
our  superior.  Let  me  tell  you  that  among  the  stu- 
dents at  the  university,  for  instance,  there  are  none 
that  in  eagerness  to  learn  and  in  the  spirit  of  sacri- 
fice for  learning,  undergoing  hardships  that  are  even 
harrowing  to  tell  of— there  are  none  that  can  rival 
some  of  the  Russian  Jewish  students.  Their  ideal- 
ism for  science  is  touching.  I  know  some  of  them 
that  never  eat  a  warm  meal  from  one  end  of  the 
week  to  the  other— why?  Not  because  they  are  too 
lazy  to  work  and  win  their  bread,  but  because  they 
work  nineteen  hours  at  their  books  to  get  knowledge, 
and  with  a  few  pennies  a  day  at  their  disposal,  keep 
the  body  alive  that  the  soul  may   feast  on  God's  light. 

I  say  that  if  our  own  young  men  are  pedestaled 
on  glory,  these  Russian  boys  are  on  a  Mont  Blanc  of 
exaltation  and  transfiguration  which  none  of  us  would 
ascend  under  such  trying  surroundings.  Russian  Jews 
are  not  brutes.  I  could  tell  you  a  thousand  and  one 
things  of  them  that  condone  for  many  of  their  short- 
comings; we  German  Jews  make  the  mistake  of  which 
we  ourselves  complain,  to  take  individuals  and  gen- 
eralize from  them.  For  whatever  the  experience  of 
our  relief  societies  counts,  my  experience  with  them 
counts  for  a  counterweight.  If  relief  societies  have 
reason  to  complain  of  what  their  wards  do,  and  gener- 
alize on  this  basis  as  to  the  character  of  these  people, 
I  generalize  from  those  whom  I  have  learned  to 
know,  and  to  respect,    perhaps  to  love.     If  one  tramp 


136  THE   ANCIENT   ANTI-SEMITE 

stamps  tliom  all  tramp.-,  one  of  these  students  marks 
them  all  as  idealists.  T.et  ns  not  clutch  the  mistake 
so  dear  to  our  enemies,  of  thinking  that  every  Jew 
is  like  every  other  Jew,  and  taking  the  lowest  among 
us  as  the  type  of  the  best !  No,  the  Russian  Jew, 
by  not  sinking  lower  than  he  lias,  by  preserving  a 
high  idealism,  if  even  only  in  individuals,  shows  what 
Jewish  history  has  always  demonstrated,  the  power  lor 
humanity  of  our  Jewish  religious  inspiration;  the 
potency  for  uplifting  morality  and  fanning  idealism, 
which  goes  with  the  faith  in  the  Jew's  election  to  be 
God\s  witness  among  men.  And  Russian  policy  to 
the  contrary  notwithstanding,  tlic  Jew  will  teach  the 
Russian  empire  the  lesson  that  a  nation  is  not  a 
mechanically  manufactured  thing  but  an  organism  of 
spirituality  in  which  languages  may  difier,  in  which 
habits   may  differ,    in  which  religions   may   differ. 

But  what  about  the  German  type  of  anti-Semitism? 
What  is  the  motive  of  the  fatherland's  anti-Semitic 
movement?  Antioch  Epi])hanes  suggests  the  explana- 
tion. What  was  he  after?  Under  the  parade  of  the 
wrong  princijiles  of  his  national  policy,  he  had  a  main 
eye  to  money.  He  needed  gold.  Greek  life  in  his 
time  presents  a  lapse  and  had  taken  a  tumble  from 
the  high  idealism  of  Plato,  of  /Eschylus  and  others. 
In  the  idealism  even  of  its  foremost  da3^s  ran  a  strong 
under-swell  of  sensuality,  this  had  risen  now  to  the 
surface.  The  typical  Greek  young  man  of  those 
days  knew  only  one  incentive,  that  he  must  try  and 
get  a  good  time  out  of  life.  If  he  happened  to  be 
rich  by  birth  he  had  no  trouble  to  satiate  his 
appetite ;  if  he  was  not  rich,  he  resorted  to  his 
wits  to  keep  step  with  the  procession.  The  gjnnnas- 
ium,  the  club  of  those  days  and  climes,  was  the 
fostering  place   of  all  that  was  low   and  vulgar   under 


AND    HIS    MOriERN    SUCCESSORS.  137 

the  cover  of  social  recreation  and  polite  indulgences, 
and  the  plea  for  cultivation  of  good  fellowship.  And 
one  of  these  young  Greeks  was  our  friend  on  the 
throne,  Antioch  Epiphanes.  Let  the  curtain  fall  on 
his  vices  and  the  debaucliery  of  his  court !  But  he 
needed  money  to  carry  on  this  life.  Among  us  a 
vulgar  philosophy  has  it  that  "money  makes  the  mare 
go, "  so  he  believed  in  the  primal  and  fundamental 
necessity  of  turning  everything  into  means  of  money 
getting.  He  had  heard  and  the  Jews  induced  him  to 
believe  it,  that  untold  treasures  were  stored  up  in  the 
temple  at  Jerusalem.  He  did  not  expect  resistance 
to  his  crafty  scheme  on  the  part  of  the  Jews,  for  the 
Jews  themselves  had  encouraged  him  to  expect  that 
they  were  ready  for  a  change.  For  the  Jews  did 
whatever  they  could  to  obliterate  the  traces  of  their 
native  "  curse ' '  of  Judaism.  Young  Jews  of  those 
dayff  would  not  pay  respect  to  their  temple,  of  course 
not.  But  they  made  up  a  purse  in  Jerusalem  and 
sent  it  as  an  offering  to  Melkarth  of  Tyre.  Melkarth 
of  Tyre  they  worshiped,  but  the  God  of  Israel  they 
knew  not.  Whatever  was  fashionable  "went,"  and 
woe  to  a  preacher  in  Jerusalem  who  would  have  the 
hardihood  to  raise  his  voice  against  this  folly  of 
imitating  the  way  of  others. 

These  gilded  yet  cowardly  Jews  had  encouraged 
Antioch  Epiphanes  to  expect  that  if  he  made 
a  strategic  move  to  get  his  hand  on  the  wealth  of 
the  temT)le,  there  would  be  no  resistance.  He  issued 
his  decree  without  religious  zeal  but  with  the  ultimate 
design   uoon   the   Jews'    wealth   and   possessions. 

In  Germany,  too,  anti-Semitism,  is  a  form  of  anti- 
capitalism.  Individual  liberalism,  of  which  we  have 
heard  so  much,  egotistic  liberalism  in  economics,  for  in- 
stance, which  was  the  dogmatic  creed,  of  the  German 


138  THE    ANCIENT    ANTI-SEMITE 

economic  schools,  before  1879,  has  opened  the  shiices 
wide  for  the  rush  of  the  turbid  stream  of  selfishness. 
From  England  one  hundred  years  ago  was  heralded  the 
doctrine  that  all  we  needed  to  be  men  was  to  be  free, 
and  that  each  one  should  run  his  own  race  at  his  own 
pace,  that  God  would  take  care  of  all,  but  that  the 
devil  would  necessarily  take  the  hindmost;  as  a  result 
of  this  system  of  individualistic  liberty  has  developed 
in  Germany  the  social  conflict,  and  its  deep  undertone 
is  the  outcry  of  the  people  against  a  selfish  system  of 
heartless  exploitation.  Who  is  always  made  responsible 
for  the  mistakes  of  others?  The  Jew.  Fortunately  in 
our  country  the  Jew  does  not  represent  capitalism. 
Those  that  harp  on  the  rich  Jews  in  this  country  know 
not  of  what  thej^  are  speaking ;  if  they  would  only 
ponder  that  in  our  universities,  the  so-called  rich  Jews 
have  not  erected  buildings  or  endowed  chairs  ;  that  our 
only  college  in  this  country,  the  Anjerican  Hebrew 
Union  College,  is  always  struggling  between  the  devil  and 
the  deep  sea  of  depleted  treasury  and  of  bankruptcy : 
the}^  would  know  that  we  have  no  rich  Jews.  If  we 
had  them  we  should  certainly  not  lag  behind  our  neigh- 
bors in  munificence  and  public  spirit.  That  we  do,  is 
the  best  proof  that  we  have  no  rich  Jews.  But  in  Ger- 
many through  the  conspiracy  of  the  mediaeval  state  the 
Jews  were  compelled  to  become  the  money  lenders  of 
their  country. 

In  the  handling  of  money  there  is  nothing  disgraceful. 
The  opposite  is  an  antiquated  prejudice.  Antiquity  knew 
not  the  social  function  of  capital,  nor  did  it  understand 
the  ethical  import  of  interest.  Money  is  power  and 
work  as  clearly  as  is  sinew  and  bone  and  brain.  If 
the  Jew  has  become  the  capitalist  and  is  engaged  in 
capitalistic  ventures  in  Germany,  let  Germany  blame 
herself  if  there  is    anything   immoral    in    the  assigned 


AND    HIS    MODERN    SUCCESSORS.  139 

position ;  and  if  there  is  not,  the  Jew  certainly  has  not 
abused  of  his  resources  any  more  than  the  power  which 
goes  with  possession  has  been  abused  everywhere  and 
by  everybody.  The  individualistic  system  of  economic 
organization  has  made  one  the  harvester  of  the  fruit  of 
the  common  labor  and  he  is  the  capitalist.  Deny  it  if 
you  will — there  is  something  wrong  in  our  present  social 
organization,  if  all  our  inventions,  all  our  great  finds, 
the  advances  in  industry,  have  fundamentally  redounded 
to  the  benefit  of  capital   almost  exclusively. 

In  Germany,  however,  since  the  days  of  the  new 
empire,  has  spread  the  practical  creed  that  life  is  worth 
living  only  to  the  rich,  and  hence  all  over,  the  watch- 
word is  wealth.  The  new  aristocracy  of  finance  can 
command  luxury  which  the  poor  baron  representing 
the  hereditary  nobility  cannot  emulate.  Yet  he  must 
keep  up  appearances.  He  would  not  be  eclipsed  by 
the  luster,  the  glory  of  the  new  order  of  things,  and 
thus  he  mortgages  his  property  foolishly.  He  has  lost 
the  sense  that  the  dignity  of  a  nobleman  compensates, 
in  a  true  nobleman,  for  all  that  he  has  to  miss  by  not 
being  in  the  "swim"  of  society,  in  the  debauchery  and 
revelry  of  wealth  displayed  vulgarly;  and  so  from  the 
highest  to  the  lowest  in  Germany,  all  are  possessed  by 
the  craze  and  the  greed  for  money  lest  the  barons  of 
finance  be  the  only  ones  to  feast  on  rare  wines  and 
dissolve  even  pearls  for  their  daily  bath  if  they  so 
choose. 

This  greed  for  money  is  always  the  signal  for  a  cru- 
sade against  the  Jew.  Individualism  has  become  bank- 
rupt,—it  is  bankrupted  in  religious  philosophy  to-day; 
it  is  bankrupted  in  political  science,  it  is  bankrupted 
in  social  science.  The  creed  of  Adam  Smith  was  a 
curse  to  humanity  when  it  was  carried  further  than  its 
legitimate  but  limited   scope.    We  need  to-day  th«  so- 


140  THE    ANCIENT    ANTI-SEMITE 

cial  organization  of  industry  and  capital.  This  view  is 
the  true  outlook ;  it  will  become  real  ere  many  more 
decades  will  have  spun  round  in  space.  "The  Jew 
is  a  capitalist,  the  money  holder,"  is  the  keynote  to 
German  anti-Semitism.  The  Jew  has  thus  to-day  in 
Germany  to  teach  the  German  people  the  error  of  its 
ways,  and  the  best  way  for  the  Jews  in  Germany  to 
fight  this  anti-Semitism  would  be  to  sever  their  con- 
nection with  the  individualistic  political  or  individual- 
istic economic  schools.  Professor  Lazarus,  in  the  year 
1884,  raised  his  voice  of  warning.  Though  maligned 
for  his  courageous  stand,  events  have  shown  that  he 
prophecied  true.  The  Jew  cannot  be  in  economics  an 
individualist.  The  prophets'  philosophy  had  a  dis- 
tinctly social  tendency. 

It  is  not  an  accident  that  La  Salle  was  a  Jew;  that 
Marks  was  a  Jew;  that  Singer  to-day  is  a  Jew.  Jesus 
too  was  a  Jew,  and  in  theory  socialistic,  in  the  highest 
sense  of  the  word.  True  socialism,  as  the  prophets 
taught  it,  is  not  anarchy,  nor  is  it  destruction — it  is 
construction,  it  is  building  up,  it  is  the  broadening  of 
the  foundations  of  humanity,  it  is  stretching  the  rope 
of  the  tabernacle  of  life.  If  the  Jews  in  Germany  knew 
what  the  cause  of  this  distemper  is,  they  would  speedily 
exemplify  the  better  knowledge  that  as  capitalists  they 
have  to  do  the  highest  duty  to  society,  to  show  that 
their  capital  is  ready  to  become  the  stepping-stone  to  a 
new  social  organization  of  humanity  on  the  basis  of  jus- 
tice and  of  righteousness. 

But  the  German  government  used  the  Jew  as  a 
shield  to  protect  itself.  "Let  the  dogs  attack  the 
Jew.  They  will  leave  the  emperor  in  peace!"  Such 
was  the  Bismarckian  thought,  and  wherever  there  is 
a  German,  a  similar  disposition  is  engrafted  in  his 
heart, 


ANt)  HIS  MODEtlN  SUCCESSOilS.  l4l 

Wherever  there  is  only  a  little  drop  of  this  preju- 
dice against  the  Jew,  it  crops  out  in  unguarded  mo- 
ments. Rare  is  the  German  that  has  not  imbibed 
this  prejudice  because  up  to  the  present  day  Germany 
has  not  been  industrially  trained  to  self-reliant  efforts. 
The  Jews  of  Germany  are  the  dynamo  of  the  indus- 
trial activities  of  the  fatherland.  And  here  is  the  root 
of  the  matter.  This  anti-Semitism  of  Germany  is  child 
of  the  social  unrest  of  our  age,  and  the  Jew  as  al- 
ways must  suffer  for  others. 

What  about  the  American  variety  of  this  prejudice? 
It  is  the  meanest  of  all,  for  it  is  spun  of  the  threads 
of  social  ostracism.  There  are  Americans,  so  called,  who 
also  would  have  America  be  one  in  religion,  with  God 
and  Jesus  in  the  constitution.  One  in  language  with 
German  suppressed ;  one  in  political  creed,  one  in  puri- 
tanism  and  the  Sunday  observance  especially,  one  in 
many  more  things,  with  a  straight-jacket  for  its  uniform. 
They  would  not  tolerate  the  "foreigner ";  and  unless 
one's  ancestors  have  come  over  aboard  the  Mayflower, 
they  look  upon  one  as  their  guest,  tolerated  merely 
here  by  their  kindness;  but  one  so  admitted  must 
vacate  the  premises  the  moment  they  sue  out  a  writ  of 
ejectment.  These  Americans  are,  however,  in  the  min- 
ority. In  America  will  continue  to  live  side  by  side 
different  nationalities  combinedly  making  the  great  na- 
tion of  America ;  in  different  languages  will  be  sung  the 
great  proclamation  of  liberty  and  will  be  choired  the 
chant,  "  My  country,'  tis  of  thee ";  in  America  will  be 
the  home  of  many  religions,  all  teaching  patriotism, 
duty  and  the  rights  and  responsibilities   of  man. 

Nationalism  is  not  the  cause  of  our  difficulty;  nor 
is  anti-capitalism  distinctly  anti-Jewish  in  this  coun- 
try. We  have  yet  to  learn  that  the  Goulds  and  the 
Vanderskilts  and  the  Lord  knows  whatever  their  name 


142  THE   ANCIKNT  ANTT-PEMTTK 

may  be,  that  fix  things  in  A\^all  Htrcct,  that  know 
how  to  build  railroads  and  wreck  them  and  bid  thcni 
in  again ;  that  are  experts  at  organizing  trusts  and 
their  dissolutions,  for  the  purpose  of  depressing  stocks 
and  then  buying  them  back,  and  after  a  long  legal 
battle  at  again  coming  to  terms  to  boom  once  more 
the  securities  purchased  at  a  low  figure,  to  fool  others 
with  a  new  bait,  and  shear  the  lambs  and  rake  in  the 
proceeds,  are  Jews.  Those  engaged  in  this  warfare  on 
society  are  not  Jews.  Now  and  then  one  Jew  is 
allowed  to  sail  this  maelstrom  of  corruption,  but  most 
of  the  freebooters  are  members  of  churches.  Anti- 
capitalism  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  prejudice 
against  us.  What  then  is  its  character?  "Society" 
will  not  recognize  the  Jew.  This  prejudice  is  har- 
bored especially  by  the  women.  One  probably  a  de- 
scendant of  a  good  honorable  fur-trader,  who  came  to 
America  in  the  early  days  when  fur  traffic  was  profit- 
able, has  become  anxious  to  represent  a  social  nobil- 
ity, and,  as  even  the  common  clay  of  Christian 
Americans  is  not  good  enough  for  her  daughters,  she 
imports  at  a  high  price  some  foreigner  to  take  the 
daughter  off  her  hands  and  give  her  a  title.  Another 
is  the  child  of  some  good  honest  butcher,  who  made 
his  money  by  killing  sheep  and  investing  it  carefully, 
through  the  unearned  increment  became  wealthy.  Ter- 
ribly learned  and  terribly  cultured,  she  will  not  min- 
gle with  one  that  may  possibly  be  a  descendant  of 
the  family  that  gave  to  the  world  Jesus,  her  own  re- 
deemer. 

It  is  the  American  women  mostly  that  foster  this 
prejudice.  What  is  their  excuse?  They  affect  to  be- 
lieve that  the  Jew  is  vulgar,  that  the  Jewess  as  a 
rule  is  a  walking,  perambulating  jewelry  establishment. 
The  Jew  cannot  speak  English.     The  Jew  is  rude.     All 


AND   HtS   MODKRN   StfCCESSOUS.  143 

these  ridiculous  charges  are  winged  arrows  sent  to  keep 
at  a  distance  and  to  do  injury  to  a  class  of  men  and 
women  Avho,  to  say  the  least,  are  as  refined  as  their 
snobbish  traducers.  If  these  Americans  traveling  in 
Europe  knew  any  language  but  their  own,  so  that  they 
could  understand  what  is  said  of  them,  they  would 
learn  that  in  Europe  the  Americans  are  held  to  be 
what  these  Americans  hold  the  Jews  to  be.  Why? 
Because  probably  at  rare  intervals  one  American  of  their 
set  was  of  this  character,  and  as  the  Americans  in 
Europe  are  the  minority,  all  suffer,  as  every  minority 
will  suffer,  for  the  misdeeds  of  one   of  their  number. 

I  do  not  deny  that  there  are  Jews  that  are  vulgar.  I 
hold  that  the  Christians  have  not  a  monopoly  on  vul- 
garity. I  do  not  deny  that  some  of  our  Jewesses  are 
foolish  enough  to  lessen  their  beauty  by  a  display  of 
jewels  that  ought  to  be  in  a  safe  deposit  or  under  the 
guard  of  a  detective.  I  do  not  deny  that  there  are 
Jews  that  are  rude,  who  do  not  remember  the  distinc- 
tion between  solitude  and  publicity,  who  consider  a 
street  car  a  fit  place  for  explosions  of  all  sorts  of  senti- 
ments, who  do  not  remember  that  they  have  a  respon- 
sibility to  others ;  but  there  are  as  many  non-Jews  that 
do  the  same  thing.  Judaism  certainly  does  not  teach 
rudeness,  and  the  Jew  who  is  a  Jew  not  merely  by  ac- 
cident, but  by  conviction,  will  repress  all  superfluity  of 
boisterous  sentiment,  or  curb  all  barbaric  inclination 
for  display  of  vulgar  splendor. 

This  prejudice  is  again  a  phase  of,  and  at  the  same 
time  a  travesty,  on  our  individualism.  It  looks  to  the 
individual,  but  makes  him  or  her  the  type  of  a  class. 
What  are  we  going  to  do  about  it?  Some  of  us  are 
terribly  anxious  that  this  thing  should  stop.  I  am 
not.  Those  that  do  not  wish  to  associate  with  me 
simply  because  I  am  a   Jew,  are  welcome  to  follow  to 


144  The  ancient  anTi-semite 

the  full  their  bent.  I  consider  myself  a  gainer  by  ex- 
clusion from  their  society,  for  what  can  I  profit  by 
associating  with  narrow-minded  bigots?  Their  horizon 
is  low,  much  lower  than  mine.  Their  sympathies  are 
contracted.  Their  prejudices  are  deep.  What  matter 
to  me  that  they  refuse  to  meet  me?  Let  them  wait 
until  I  ask  them  to  be  admitted  into  their  clan !  I 
hold  that  here  is  a  call  for  the  assertion  of  the  Jewish 
feeling  "I  am  just  as  good  as  you  are."  What  matter 
if  clubs  do  not  admit  me  ?  I  am  better  off  on  the  out- 
side. I  am  much  more  comfortable  on  the  street  than 
in  such  clubs.  I  am  the  gainer,  not  the  loser.  If 
they  do  not  wish  to  take  me  into  their  hotels — well, 
is  there  absolute  necessity  that  I  should  go  to  a  fash- 
ionable caravansery  with  its  frivolities?  There  will  al- 
ways be  men,  I  believe,  that  are  above  these  prejudices, 
and  in  many  a  so-called  non-fashionable  resort  one 
finds  much  better  company  than  where  "plutocracy" 
convenes.  So  far  as  the  cultured  Jews  are  concerned, 
they  can  endure  this  sort  of  injustice  philosophically 
and  be  proud  that  their  experience  is  an  exemplifica- 
tion of  the  many  things  tliat  need  yet  to  be  done  in 
America  to  teach  the  Americans  the  lessons  of  liberty 
and  tolerance ;  it  is  unworthy  of  the  American  to  har- 
bor prejudice  in  any  shape  or  manner  whatsoever. 
But  we  should  police  our  own  district.  We  should 
resent  from  pulpit  and  in  the  press,  in  our  private 
relations  with  one  another,  everything  that  smacks  of 
vulgarity.  We  must  train  ourselves  and  others  to  be 
what  we  should  be,  minority  as  we  are,  above  reproach 
and  without  stain  or  blemish.  Another  thing  we 
might  do.  We  might  take  the  liveliest  interest  in  all 
that  affects  the  welfare  of  the  community.  We  should 
not  be  those  who  are  in. the  rear  when  something  for 
the  welfare   of  country,  county,  city   is   done. 


ANt)   HIS  MOl)ERN  SUCCESSORS.  145 

What  is  the  best  method  of  fighting  prejudice? 
This  holiday  says,  light  is.  These  lamps  here  are 
a  forcible  reminder  of  the  power  of  light  to  win  the 
battle  still  raging  about  us.  In  light,  let  our  message 
go  out  into  the  world,  and  teach  what  the  Jew  is, 
and  what  he  aims  to  be,  and  half  of  the  battle  will 
be  won.  Light,  by  giving  Jewish  science  a  home  in 
our  great  universities.  These  universities,  as  far  as 
the  state  has  not  founded  them,  are  all  private  en- 
dowments of  men  of  deep  religious  and  Christian 
convictions,  and  therefore  we  cannot  expect  that  they 
will  give  hospitality  to  Jewish  science  unless  the 
Jews  make  provision  for  the  maintenance  of  this 
branch  in  the  curriculum.  Not  every  university  is 
even  willing  to  give  the  rabbi  place  on  the  faculty, 
unless  the  chair  be  endowed.  Here  is  the  oppor- 
tunity to  fight  the  prejudice.  One  Jewish  professor, 
whatever  his  branch  may  be,  and  especially  if  he 
teaches  Jewish  science  and  teaches  the  history  of 
Judaism  and  the  philosophy  of  Judaism,  does  more 
for  the  generations  to  be  than  all  other  movements 
to  combat  prejudice  combined.  Do  you  think  that 
the  theologians,  the  baptist  theologians,  who  will  re- 
member me  as  their  teacher,  can  go  into  their  pul- 
pits and  dare  fire  off  the  old  ammunition?  They 
know  better;  they  are  ashamed  to  use  the  rusty 
arms   from   the   old   arsenal   of  bigotry. 

Here  is  a  noble  work  to  be  done.  Let  your  light 
shine  forth !  Let  its  vajs  penetrate  into  the  institu- 
tions of  learning.  We  Jews  of  this  city  ought  to 
have  a  building  in  the  blocks  of  buildings  at  our 
university.  When  we  visit  the  campus  and  look 
around — and  read  one  name— another  name— a  third 
name,  recalling  the  munificence  of  Chicago's  citi- 
zens— how    long    shall    we    ask    in    mortification,   why 


146  THE  ANCIENT  ANTI-SEMITE 

is  there  no  Jew  in  the  number?  We  have  no  rich 
Jews,  as  I  have  said — but  many  poor  Jews  make 
one  rich  Jew.  Is  it  not  possible  for  the  Jews  of 
Chicago  and  the  northwest  to  erect  the  library  build- 
ing, and  to  call  it  after  Lessing?  One  hundred 
thousand  dollars  would  accomplish  this.  Are  there 
not  a  hundred  or  two  hundred  that  are  willing  to 
bring  this  sacrifice?  Yea,  let  light  stream  out,  and 
the  minions  of  darkness  will  disappear.  I  fear  not 
that  in  the  long  run  Antioch  Epiphanes  will  be  de- 
feated. Even  now  the  tidal  wave  is  receding.  Russia 
has  learned  the  lesson — is  learning  it — that  national- 
ity is  not  based  on  uniformity,  and  Germany  will, 
throwing  off  individualism,  come  to  its  own  ideal 
consciousness  again,  and  in  America  the  social  preju- 
dice will  die  out  for  want  of  fuel  and  provocation, 
if  the  Jew  be  in  every  field  the  leader  toward  the 
height  where  God's  own  light  kindles  the  Menorah, 
the  holy    lamp    in   the   temple    of  humanity.     Amen. 


'HANUKKAH. 


BY   REV.    DR.    G.  GOTTHEIL. 


In  one  of  the  rocky  caverns  of  the  Judsean  moun- 
tains, Matathias  had  gathered  his  five  stalwart  sons 
around  his  deathhed,  to  consecrate  them  to  the  service 
of  their  country  and  their  religion.  He  charged  them 
not  to  be  carried  away  with  those  that,  either  by  their 
own  inclination  or  out  of  necessity  betray  the  customs 
of  their  country  and  their  ancient  form  of  govern- 
ment, but  to  become  such  men  as  are  above  all  forces 
and  necessities,  and  so  to  dispose  their  souls  as  to  be 
ready  to  die  for  their  laws ;  and  to  be  sensible  of  this, 
by  just  reasoning,  that  if  God  see  that  they  are  so 
disposed,  He  will  not  overlook  them,  but  have  a  great 
value  for  their  virtue  and  will  restore  to  them  again 
what  they  have  lost  and  return  to  them  that  freedom 
in  which  they  will  live  quietly  and  enjoy  their  cus- 
toms. As  he  spoke,  so  it  happened.  All  the  five 
sons  gave  their  lives  to  their  country;  but  their  blood 
was  not  shed  in  vain.  It  fructified  the  soil  from 
which  a  new  life  sprang  for  the  nation.  Long  after- 
wards the  pillars  rising  over  their  tomb  at  Modin  ar- 
rested the  foot  of  the  traveler,  and  called  forth  that 
spontaneous  homage  which  the  human  heart  never 
denies  to  heroic  souls.  We,  the  heirs  to  their  fame 
as  well  as  to  the  price  of  their  death,  ought  to  do 
more.     We  ought  to    reflect  on  the  lesson    it    teaches. 

(147) 


148  ^HANUKKAH. 

That  deathbed  scene  points  to  the  primary  sources 
from  which  flow  the  inspiration  for  the  ideal  life.  It 
is  the  parents'  teaching  and  example.  God  has  given 
them  charge  of  the  young  soul:  theirs  it  is  to  mould 
and  direct  its  faculties.  If  they  fail  to  do  their 
whole  duty,  it  is  very  rare  that  after  life  can  repair 
the  injury. 

The  child  that  has  grown  up  in  a  home  where  there 
is  no  religion  of  any  kind  will  seldom  find  it  in 
temple  or  church.  Where  pleasure  and  profit  are 
the  only  gods  worshiped,  the  poorest  chance  remains 
to  awaken  the  heart  to  a  love  and  reverence  for 
better  and  higher  things.  The  magnet  attracts  iron 
because  in  the  iron  there  is  an  answering  force  and 
disposition;  it  never  attracts  wood  or  stone,  j Judaism, 
above  all,  never  was  an  ecclesiastical  religion,  never 
was  identified  with  the  priestly  function  or  a  con- 
secrated house.  One  of  the  secrets  of  its  power  of 
endurance  lies  in  the  hold  it  always  had  on  the 
home.  ^Because  that  was  a  house  of  God,  the  House 
of  God  became  the  home  of  the  worshipful  heart. 
True,  we  may  "come  to  scoff,  and  stay  to  pray, '7 
but,  as  a  rule,  we  must  bring  some  religion  with  us 
if  we  are  to  find  more  in  the  House  of  Prayer; 
just  as  we  must  have  music  in  our  souls  before  we 
go  to  the  concert  hall,  or  a  sense  of  the  beautiful 
if  we  would  enjoy  the  productions  of  art.  Our  chil- 
dren receive  lessons  in  literature ;  for  what  purpose  ? 
to  create  the  faculty  for  reading  the  poets  under- 
standingly.  The  work  of  our  religious  schools  must 
remain  incomplete  if  not  supported  by  a  correspond- 
ing home  influence.  The  Psalm  appointed  to  be 
read  during  these  memorial  days  bears  this  super- 
scription :  "A  song  for  the  dedication  of  the  House 
of  David. "     Yet  tradition    has   it   that  its   real  author 


^IIANUKKAH.  149 

was  Solomon,  because  ho  it  was  who  built  the  first 
temple,  but  that  he  inscribed  the  dedication  hymn 
to  his  royal  father,  because  it  was  by  his  forethought 
in  collecting  treasure  and  material,  that  the  son  was 
enabled  to  rear  the  stately  fane  on  Zion.  It  is  just 
so  in  the  spiritual  building  up  of  the  souls  of  chil- 
dren. The  parents  must  furnish  the  material  out  of 
which  it  is  to  be  constructed.  And  this  is  true  not 
only  in  regard  to  religion — character,  principles,  man- 
ners, in  fact,  the  whole  life  takes  its  complexion  from 
what  the  children  hear,  or  see,  or  silently  observe  when 
the  parents  think  that  they  notice  nothing.  In  times 
of  visitation,  in  trials  that  search  the  heart,  children 
must  receive  the  same  impression  which  the  brave 
Hasmoneans  received  from  the  lips  of  their  dying 
father:  to  be  above  all  force  and  necessity  and  so 
to  dispose  their  minds  as  to  be  ready  to  sacrifice 
everything   at  the   call   of  duty. 

Looking  at  the  scene  in  the  cavern  from  a  historical 
point  of  view  we  may  well  call  it  a  turning  point  in  the 
religious  life  of  Israel,  nay,  of  the  human  race.  Before 
that  hour  Judaism  was  mainly  a  divine  discipline,  a 
system  of  ordinances  of  what  was  to  be  done  or  was  to 
be  left  undone,  weighted  with  alluring  promises  for  the 
obedient  and  severe  punishment  for  the  disobedient. 
But  from  that  moment  the  power  of  bearing  and  self- 
denying  became  the  test  of  piety  and  fidelity.  The 
martyrs  crown  was  first  raised  over  that  ever  memor- 
able deathbed.  Religion,  henceforth,  became  a  faith,  a 
conviction,  a  spiritual  possession  of  infinite  significance 
to  the  soul.  The  God  that  had  descended  only  on 
Sinai  now  entered  the  heart  of  Israel,  where  He  has 
dwelt  ever  since.  Before  that  day  only  the  chosen  few 
had  so  conceived  of  religion,  notably  the  great  prophets. 
The   fifty-third  chapter  of    Isaiah   is   not  a  prophecy 


150  'hanukkah. 

of  the  appearance  at  same  time  of  a  single  man,  but 
of  man  in  his  highest  aspect,  the  heoric  servant  of  God 
in  all  ages.  It  is  an  incomparable  elegy  on  the  suf- 
fering redeemers  of  all  generations  and  of  the  manner 
of  their  reception  amongst  men.  Surely  he  has  borne 
our  griefs  and  carried  our  sorrows,  yet  we  esteemed  him 
stricken,  smitten  of  God  and  afflicted.  The  chastisement 
of  our  peace  was  upon  him  and  in  his  stripes  we  were 
healed;  yet  shall  the  work  of  the  Lord  prosper  in  his 
hands.  Self-sacrifice  is  the  only  creed  which  can 
never  be  questioned,  but  not  self-sacrifice  without  a 
purpose  and  without  an  end,  worthy  of  our  reverence. 
Every  true  act  of  heroism  is  religious  in  its  very  na- 
ture, and  so  considered  the  world  is  full  of  the  true 
faith.  The  Creator,  who  planted  this  impulse  into  our 
being,  is  glorified  from  the  rising  of  the  sun  even 
unto  the  going  down  thereof.  Few  souls  have  seen 
God  thus  revealed  face  to  face;  have  seen  Him  in  that 
pure  light  in  which  He  appeared  in  the  cavern  of  Judae. 
The  heroism  of  faith  is  Israel's  acknowledged  patrimony. 
May  we  ever  guard  it  and  transmit  it  unimpaired  from 
generation  to   generation.     Amen. 


SILENCE  MEANS  RUIN. 


A  PURIM  DISCOURSE   BY  RABBI    MAX  HELLER. 


The  spiritualizing  influences  of  this  modern  age 
which  have  transfused  with  higher  beauty  so  many  of 
the  hoary  traditions  of  Judaism  have  shed  their  rose- 
ate glow  of  tender  sentiment  upon  that  festival  also 
which  to-day  we  recall,  even  if  not  celebrate.  The 
Purim-feast  of  old  in  whose  diadem  glittered  the 
sparkling  jewels  of  charity  amid  the  bright  gold  of 
mirth  and  laughter,  a  feast  of  gratitude  for  deliver- 
ance, not  undimmed,  however,  by  bitter  reminiscences 
of  deadly  persecution,  is  to-day  a  lovely  dream  of  a 
fair  heroine  guided  by  a  patriot's  stern  counsel  and 
while  the  Hamans  are  still  with  us  in  the  spectre  of 
anti-Semitism,  yet  is  the  lesson  of  Esther's  self-sacri- 
fice principally  one  of  Jewish  unity,  unshaken  loyalty 
and  the  widest  generosity. 

As  to  the  story  itself,  whose  freshness  of  eternal 
youth  would  well  deserve  that  we  should  annually 
rehearse  it  even  if  we  should  miss  thereby  the  en- 
joyment of  some  latest  product  of  ephemeral  fiction, 
it  is  a  moving  scene  of  dazzling  descriptions,  surpris- 
ing changes,  dramatic  episodes.  In  the  fascination  of 
the  rapid  narrative  we  are  apt  to  do  scant  justice  to 
the  nervy,  terse  words  at  the  critical  points  in  the 
action,  words  which  sear  and  burn,  out  of  whose 
white   flame   shines  luminously   the    majesty  of   heroic 

(151) 


152  SILENCE    MEANS    RUIN, 

souls.  I  cannot  forget,  for  iny  part,  and  year  after 
year  it  seems  to  me  more  strenuous  and  adamantine 
in  its  firmness,  the  vivid  energy  of  Mordecai's  warn- 
ing. "Imagine  not  in  thy  soul  that  thou  wilt  be 
saved  in  the  king's  palace  out  of  all  the  Jews;  for  if 
indeed  thou  wilt  be  silent  at  this  time,  deliverance 
and  enlargement  will  arise  to  the  Jews  from  another 
place,   but  thou  and   thy   father's    house    will   perish." 

It  is  not  merely  the  restrained  power  in  these  words 
which  moves  me  so  strongly ;  it  is  the  obvious  appli- 
cation with  which  they  beat  upon  our  age  which  ap- 
peals to  me  with  a  force  so  immediate  and  vital.  This 
is  in  our  very  day  the  fatal  error  of  cultured  Jew-dom 
which  needs  a  rebuking  like  Mordecai's;  that  blind 
error  by  which  the  glittering  palace  of  a  materialistic 
civilization  is  trusted  in  as  the  fortress  of  safety,  that 
error  by  which  the  royal  splendors  of  modern  refine- 
ment are  looked  to  as  a  safeguard  against  the  power  of 
Haman-edicts,  however  these  might  rage  amid  the  dark 
poverty  outside.  The  royal  palace  is  a  treacherous 
refuge  and  affords  as  kindly  a  home  to  l)loodthirsty 
Haman  as  to  the  lovely  queen ;  the  royal  palace  rever- 
berates with  the  strifes  of  brutal  selfishness,  of  insati- 
able greed ;  it  is  in  loyalty  to  the  Jewish  name,  in  the 
glad  response  to  duty,  in  the  brave  outspokenness  of 
conviction  that  safety  is  found  and  the  preservation  of 
the   "  fathers'  house." 

Uj^on  the  hollowness  of  modern  professions,  upon 
the  continuing  danger  from  savage  egotism,  upon  the 
unweakened  necessity  of  Jewish  solidarity,  I  have  dwelt 
more  than  once  on  similar  occasions.  To-day,  gleaning 
from  the  ancient  narrative  a  lesson  of  more  than  racial 
application  I  prefer  to  expatiate  upon  •  these  selected 
words:  "If  at  a  time  like  this  thou  wilt  be  silent 
.    .     .    then  thou  and  thy  father's  house   will  perish." 


SILENCE   MEANS   RUIN.  153 

As  a  sweet  type  of  shrinking  modesty,  as  a  fair  vis- 
ion of  womanly  dependence  and  obedience  few  heroines 
of  history  or  fiction  could  contest  the  palm  of  beauty 
with  the  lovely  Hebrew  myrtle  which  shone  as  the 
radiant  Persian  star.  Submission,  service,  the  shy  con- 
straints which  sit  so  well  upon  a  noble  countenance  are 
her  principal  charms  ;  Jewess,  orphan,  exile,  it  is  but 
natural  that  loveliness  and  self-effacement  should  sur- 
round her  as  with  a  halo  of  unconscious  purity.  It 
is  in  such  as  she  that  aggressive  women  with  their 
bold  claims  of  masculine  privileges  might  recognize 
wherein,  by  nature's  immutable  law,  is  found  woman's 
highest  beauty  and  grandest  dignity. 

To  this  frail  woman  it  is  that  Mordecai  addresses  his 
kindling  words:     "Dare  to  be  silent   now   and   destruc- 
tion will  crash  over  your  head ;  it  is  a  time  to   speak, 
to  be  fearless  and  bold,  it  means  your  ruin  and  your  an- 
nihilation if  now  you  hold  back  and  shrink  from  duty." 
And  lo !   the  light  of  courage  shines   from  the  beaming 
eye;    calm   determination  takes   the   place   of    confused 
hesitancy,   of  timid   pleading;   it  is  she  who    gives  the 
command,  she  who  guides  and  enjoins,  her  life  is  her 
people's  either  to  save  them  from  the  threat   of  doom 
or  else  to  die  for  her  defiance.     Henceforth,  though  she 
awaits  in  calmness  the  nearing  opportunity  for  the  decisive 
utterance,  the  words  are  formed  in  her  heart  to  spring 
to  her  lips  on  wings  of  courage,  to  be  hurled  like  bolts 
of  lightning  into  the  very  face  of  the  cruel  enemy. 

How  beautiful  a  word  in  season;  the  cowardly  pro- 
verb commends  in  diplomatic  counsel  that  while  speech 
may  be  silver,  silence  is  gold;  as  if  it  had  been  the 
silences  of  cravens  and  not  the  words  of  heroes  that 
have  lifted  humanity  from  rung  to  higher  rung,  as  if 
the  great  treasure-house  of  centuried  wisdom  was  filled 
with  the  voids  of  stillness  rather  than  with  the  wealth 


154  SILENCE    MEANS    RUIN. 

of  golden  speech.  Against  the  shallow  policy  of  pro- 
verb-prudence how  much  wiser  the  saying  of  our  sages 
which  commends  silence  only  as  the  hedge  around 
wisdom.  There  is  a  silence  of  self-restraint  which  is 
not  shrewd  concealment  but  benevolent  moderation, 
there  is  an  abstinence  from  speech  which  proves  the 
strong  character,  a  manly  reserve  which  only  empha- 
sizes the  timely  outspokenness.  This  silence  is  the 
frame  for  speech,  the  tranquil  background  from  which 
decisive  action  and  unambiguous  utterance  step  out 
more  boldly;  for  the  great  men  of  silence,  a  Grant,  a 
Wellington,  a  Moltke,  have  been  men,  though  princi- 
pally of  action,  yet  also  of  priceless  words. 

But  in  this  complacent  world  of  ours,  in  the  push- 
ing and  jostling  of  competition,  in  the  wire-pulling  and 
log-rolling  of  social  and  commercial  and  public  causes, 
in  the  slavish  imitations  and  thoughtless  repetitions 
of  the  great  herd  who  are  simply  echoes,  in  all  this 
chaos  of  diplomatic  selfishness,  supine  indolence,  flabby 
good-nature,  indifferent  carelessness,  underhand  intrigue 
and  unprincipled  lying,  there  must  be  some  one  to 
clear  the  atmosphere  of  all  its  fog  and  soot  with  a 
ringing  word  of  truth.  "In  the  place  where  men  are 
not,  strive  thou  to  be  a  man."  Where  candor  and 
sincerity  hide  in  the  corner,  there  is  a  deliverance  in 
the  fearless  avowal,  in  the  puncturing  charge. 

That  straightforward  courage  redeems  is  a  lesson  of 
manliness  which  we  need  at  this  juncture  of  a  false 
refinement  and  an  unprincipled  social  diplomacy  more 
than  it  has  ever  been  needed  before.  We  are  so  civil 
and  punctilious  in  our  international  relations;  when  a 
presidential  message  rings  out  its  resounding  demand 
for  justice  the  thin-skinned  culture  of  our  universities 
cries  shame  upon  the  disturbance;  but  when  a  Brazil, 
a  Cuba,  struggle  for  liberty  and  justice,  a  finical  respect 


SILENCE    MEANS    RUIN.     .  155 

for  international  courtesy  restrains  the  birthland  of 
constitutional  freedom  from  going  as  far  as  even  offi- 
cially recognizing  the  undisputed  reality.  Are  we  not 
blinking  facts  with  as  much  cowardice  and  remissness 
to  duty  in  our  private  lives  ?  Does  not  our  silence 
and  our  social  indifference  give  the  sanction  of  con- 
sent to  all  the  scoundrels  and  rascals  we  tolerate  as 
our  company?  Are  we  not  afraid  of  the  naked  truth 
as  of  something  rude  and  refined?  Have  we  not 
dressed  her  image  up  in  so  many  circumlocutions  and 
equivocations  that  we  flee  from  her  when  she  appears 
unveiled   in   the  beauty   of  her  purity? 

And  we  that  claim  the  title  of  truth's  guardians, 
we  Jews,  on  what  kind  of  terms  are  we  living  with 
candor  and  frankness  in  our  social  relationships?  Not 
enough  that  petty  business  considerations  and  effemi- 
nate society  habits  keep  back  from  our  lips  the  strong 
words  we  have  almost  unlearned  to  use,  but  we  are 
trembhng  with  redoubled  apprehensions  when  it  is  our 
own  foibles  that  are  to  be  pointed  out,  dragged  to 
the  light,  overwhelmed  with  righteous  condemnation. 
It  is  the  Gentile's  opinion  we  pretend  to  fear,  the 
Gentile's  judgment  we  are  warned  against  affecting,  but 
it  is  our  own  morbid  sensitiveness,  our  own  petted 
conceits  around  which  we  want  drawn  the  protecting 
fence  of  a  politic  silence.  To  my  mind  no  greater 
injury  could  be  inflicted  by  the  presence  of  prejudice, 
by  the  threats  of  exclusion  than  if  it  wrought  in  our 
characters,  in  our  moral  lives  the  fearful  havoc  that 
springs  from  self-deception,  from  the  secret  festering 
and  feeding  of  ulcers  which  should  be  cut  out,  no 
matter  at  what  cost  of  pain   and   mortification. 

We  cannot  afford  to  be  silent  in  the  presence  of 
evil ;  and  like  a  m'agnificent  sunburst  from  out  black 
clouds   has  come  to  the  world   the   heart-deep  realiza- 


156  SILENCE   MEANS    RITTN. 

tion  of  man's  keeper-duty  to  his  brother.  And  if 
craven  governments  all  over  the  extent  of  boastful  civ- 
ilization are  observing  a  criminal  inactivity  in  the 
presence  of  wrongs  that  cry  to  heaven,  with  the 
shrieks  of  butchered  innocents  in  their  heedless  ear, 
the  peojjle  will  speak  for  Russian  Jew,  Armenian  vic- 
tim and  Cuban  insurgent;  they  feel,  in  the  royal  pal- 
ace of  their  freemen's  privileges,  that  their  existence, 
that  freedom's  house  should  totter,  if,  at  times  like 
these,   they   should  indeed   be   silent. 

There  is  a  speech  that  is  gold,  it  is  the  eloquent 
response  of  active  help.  "Money  talks "  and  the  si- 
lence which  is  death  is  often  no  more  nor  less  than 
the  narrow-hearted  refusal  to  obey  the  generous  im- 
pulse. And  this  speech  is  at  present  the  only  one  in 
which  we  can  speak  for  our  oppressed  brethren,  our 
liberal  assistance  from  our  means  is  the  only  earnest 
we  can  give  of  our  sympathy,  of  our  literal  Jewish 
fellow-feeling.  It  is  our  duty,  our  indisputable  duty  to 
give  to  the  brothers  of  the  Orient;  it  is  an  appropriate 
duty  to  perform  on  this  feast  of  Purim  which  empha- 
sizes that  we  are  their  brothers,  no  matter  what  radical 
extremists  may  prate  about  our  differences  of  belief  and 
standpoint;  it  is  our  duty  always,  no  matter  how  great 
may  seem  the  burdens  of  our  local  charities.  Let  us 
at  last  cease  repeating  the  brazen  falsehood  that  we  are 
weighted  down  with  charity;  who  of  us  is  suffering 
from  self-deprivation  in  consequence  of  charitable  ex- 
travagance? Not  one  whom  I  can  point  out,  myself 
included.  How  many  are  the  pleasures  which  we  deny 
ourselves  so  we  might  be  able  to  give  to  the  poor? 
Very  few,  very   few,  indeed. 

Again,  therefore,  as  in  the  years  gone  by,  I  appeal 
to  you  with  the  old  confidence  on  behalf  of  the  edu- 
cationalj  Vork     of     the    Alliance     Israelite     Universelle. 


SILENCE   MEANS   RUlN.  157 

Let  your  generous  hearts  proclaim  in  golden  accent 
that  these  days  of  Purim  have  not  passed  out  beyond 
your  feeling  of  duty;  and  give  with  an  open  hand  in 
the  reassuring  confidence  that  your  seed  will  be  well 
sown  by  careful  gardeners,  to  sprout  forth  in  distant 
lands  to  blossoms  of  culture,  fragrant  with  the  per- 
fume of  the  higher  life.     Amen. 


LIBERTY  AND  LIGHT. 


A    PASSOVER  SERMON. — BY   REV.    O.    J.     COHEN,    MOBILE,  ALA. 


On  the  first  page  of  the  Bible  we  find  emblazoned 
one  of  the  sublimest  passages  in  the  whole  world's 
literature;  brief  in  statement,  powerful  in  expression, 
infinite  in  suggestiveness,  wonderful  in  comprehensive- 
ness: — "And  God  said:  'Let  there  be  light!'— and 
there   was   light." 

That  was  the  first  decisive  act  in  creation.  The 
material  of  the  universe,  the  heavens  and  the  earth, 
had  ah-eady  been  fashioned  by  the  divine  power.  But 
this  was  a  rude  and  shapeless  mass,  with  darkness 
brooding  over  the  face  of  the  deep.  By  the  august 
command  "Let  there  be  light,"  the  darkness  was 
thrust  back,  the  world  was  wrested  from  chaos.  By 
that  one  stroke  of  the  Almighty  Artist,  the  confused 
elements  ranged  themselves  in  proper  parts  and  rela- 
tions, the  successive  stages  of  created  beings  appeared ; 
and  order,  which  is  Heaven's  first  law,  began  its 
reign; — for  there  was  light.  Thus  the  first  word  of 
the  divine  mouth  called  into  existence  that  which  was 
the  greatest  need  for  the  physical  universe,  and  the 
greatest  need,  as  well  as  the  richest  gift,  to  man, 
God's  co-worker  in  the  development  of  the  world. 
The  ancient  philosophers  who  felt  constrained  to  con- 
ceive  God   under  some  material    form,   considered   that 

(158) 


Liberty  and  Light.  159 

His  essence  was  fire,  which  they  regarded  as  the  pur- 
est and  noblest  of  all  the  elements.  Likewise  in  or- 
der to  express  what  to  them  was  the  highest  idea  of 
the  human  soul,  they  declared  it  to  be  made  of  fire, 
an  emanation  from  the  divine  fire.  A  similar  concep- 
tion, but  in  sublimer  and  truer  form,  is  that  of  the 
Scriptures,  many  verses  of  which  speak  of  God  as 
light.  We  have,  too,  a  passage  in  Proverbs,  that 
calls  the  spirit  of  man  ''a  lamp  of  the  Lord";  thus 
pointing  to  the  essential  and  best  part  of  human  na- 
ture as  a  flash  of  that  divine  light  which  shines 
through   the  world. 

But  the  primitive  light  did  not  remain.  The  dark- 
ness came  again.  By  the  command  of  the  Lord  who 
made  a  division  between  light  and  darkness,  each 
had  its  place  and  its  time,  night  and  day  followed 
in  regular  succession.  In  the  career  of  mankind  the 
divine  light  of  truth  did  not  at  once  reveal  itself 
and  act  as  the  all-governing  power.  The  lamp  of 
the  soul  did  not  always  shine  with  the  divine  light 
that  had  at  first  kindled  it.  It  was  dimmed  by 
folly  and  ignorance,  and  flickered  in  error.  Human- 
ity began  a  slow,  though  steady  growth,  and  in  its 
earliest  stages  darkness  predominated. 

Travel  now  in  thought  through  the  corridors  of  time, 
through  the  many  centuries  from  the  day  of  creation  to 
the  time  commemorated  by  this  festival  of  Passover. 
What  do  we  behold?  Israel  in  bondage  to  the  Egyp- 
tians. A  nation,  whose  early  ancestors  had  perceived 
some  of  the  light  of  religious  and  moral  truth,  groan- 
ing in  servitude  under  the  iron  rule  of  a  nation  that 
in  spite  of  its  advanced  material  civilization,  was  intel- 
lectually and  morally  in  darkness.  But  the  signal  for 
emancipation  had  already  been  given.  Inspiration  that 
led  to  the  breaking  of  that  cruel  yoke  had  already  de- 


160  LIBERTY  AND  LIGHT. 

scended  from  heaven  and  fired  the  soul  of  Israel's 
great  leader.  Boldly  did  Moses  go  before  Pharaoh  and 
demand  that  his  people  should  be  set  free  and  allowed 
to  go  and  worship  their  God  and  the  God  of  their 
fathers.  The  hard-hearted  refusal  was  met  with  aveng- 
ing plagues,  which  one  after  another  afflicted  the  king 
and  his  subjects ;  but  they  obstinately  withstood  the 
divine  wrath.  There  came,  though,  the  ninth  plague, 
the  one  before  and  preparatory  to  the  last,  that  of 
darkness,  which  hung  over  Egypt  for  three  days,  in 
the  graphic  words  of  the  Scriptures,  a  thick  blackness 
that  could  be  felt.  "But,"  we  read,  "for  the  children 
of  Israel,  there  was  light  in  all  their  dwellings."  That 
was  the  decisive  occurrence.  When  the  Israelites  saAV 
distinctly  the  darkness  of  Egyptian  idolatry,  supersti- 
tion and  folly,  and  in  their  souls  gleamed  the  light  of 
truth  and  reason,  they  could  be  restrained  no  longer. 
Then  it  was  that  Moses  made  his  final  audience  before 
Pharaoh  and  emphatically  repeated  his  demand  with- 
out the  least  compromise,  and  being  refused  exclaimed  to 
the  haughty  monarch  who  forbade  his  presence  hence- 
forth, "thou  hast  spoken  well;  I  shall  never  see  thy  face 
any  more."  It  was  the  work  of  but  a  short  time  when  the 
first-born  of  Israel's  enemies  were  smitten  by  the  last 
plague  and  the  people,  now  irresistible,  pressed  forward 
and  cast  their  chains  of  slavery  forever  behind  them. 
Even  the  pursuing  host  could  not  bring  them  back. 
Fearlessly  Israel  marched  right  into  the  waters  of  the 
Red  Sea  and  did  not  stop  until,  their  enemies  drowned, 
they  sung  on  the  further  shore  their  triumphal  song  of 
liberty. 

This  was  God's  second  great  gift  to  mankind — lib- 
erty. It  was  given  to  Israel  not  only  for  their  benefit, 
but  that  they  might  spread  it  through  the  world.  Is- 
rael was  made  its  apostle,  to  proclaim  it  to  the  world, 


LIBERTY    AND   LIGHT.  161 

and  to  teach  at  the  same  time  that  the  two  go  to- 
gether, light  and  liberty.  Light  needs  liberty.  To  gain 
the  light  of  wisdom  and  truth,  there  must  be  freedom 
of  search  and  inquiry ;  the  mind  must  not  be  fettered. 
On  the  other  hand  liberty  needs  light.  Darkness  and 
servitude  go  together ;  but  wherever  there  is  light  of 
reason,  tlie  fetters  are  broken,  and  mind  as  well  as 
body  will  emancipate  itself.  This  is  true  not  only  po- 
litically, for  ignorant  slaves  with  better  understanding 
have  risen  against  their  oppressors  and  gained  freedom, 
but  also  morally,  religiously  and  intellectually.  As  long 
as  ignorance  was  enforced,  there  Avas  servitude  to  false- 
hood and  to  error;  but  as  soon  as  the  light  of  reason 
shone,  the  people  freed  themselves  from  the  tyranny  of 
superstition  and  folly,  and  proclaimed  and  followed  the 
truth. 

This  great  lesson  of  liberty,  impressed  so  early  in 
history  upon  the  people  of  Israel,  has  never  been 
lost  to  them.  Already  in  the  days  of  Moses,  a  law 
was  made  prohibiting  a  Jew  from  making  a  slave  of 
any  of  his  brethren ;  the  Jewish  spirit  could  not  tol- 
erate servitude.  Through  all  times  they  showed  the 
same  disposition.  All  the  oppression  of  the  might- 
iest nations  of  the  world  could  not  enslave  them. 
And  even  when  their  external  circamstances  were  made 
bitter  by  the  hand  of  tyranny,  their  minds  could 
not  be.  fettered  and  their  thoughts  could  not  be  held 
down  to  any  enforced  belief,  but  remained  free  in  the 
great  ideas  that  were  their  heritage.  The  same  thing 
accounts  for  their  condition  to-day.  Russia  maintains 
its  barbarous  power  over  its  subjects  by  keeping  them 
in  the  darkness  of  ignorance ;  for  that  country,  it  is 
well  known,  not  only  makes  little  provision  for,  but 
even  hinders  in  every  possible  way  public  education. 
Especially  against    our    co-religionists    are    restrictions 


162  LIBERTY   AND   LIGHT. 

enforced  to  prevent  them  from  gaining  education.  All 
the  persecution  of  our  people  in  that  country  comes 
from  the  fact  that  they  have  the  light  of  reason  and 
truth  from  their  own  ancient  sources,  and  so  cannot 
be  made  the  submissive  slaves  which  the  ignorant 
peasantry   certainly  are. 

Furthermore,  the  Jews  have  generally  been,  where 
ever  they  have  been  situated,  the  champions  of  liberty. 
They  have  been,  and  are  to-day,  the  advocates  of  free- 
dom of  thought,  freedom  of  speech,  freedom  of  con- 
science and  freedom  of  action.  In  testimony  we  may 
mention  such  names  as  Cremieux,  Lasker,  Lasalle  and 
Marx,  whose  policies,  speeches  and  writings  govern 
and  inspire  those  that  are  struggling  for  greater  liberty 
in  the  still  backward  countries  of  Europe.  It  is  the 
duty  of  the  Jews  in  all  circumstances,  on  every  occa- 
sion, in  every  field,  to  be  on  the  side  of  progress  and 
advance.  The  teachings  of  their  religion  and  the 
spirit  they  have  inherited  from  their  ancestors  should 
devote  them   to   the   cause  of  light   and   liberty. 

They  have  contributed  something,  indeed  much,  to 
the  world  in  this  respect.  Why,  what  is  the  corner- 
stone of  this  Republic  which  is  pre-eminently  the 
land  of  freedom  ?  The  republics  of  ancient  and 
mediaeval  times  were  unsuccessful  or  unsatisfactory  ex- 
periments of  liberty,  but  here  first  has  the  principle 
of  political,  social  and  intellectual  freedom  established 
itself  and  furthered  the  prosperity  and  happiness  of 
the  people.  To  what  origin  must  this  success  be 
traced?  The  settlers  and  founders  of  America  got 
their  ideas  not  from  any  text-book  on  politics  or  poli- 
tical economy,  not  from  the  past  experience  of  the 
nations  of  the  world;  but  got  their  main  inspiration 
from  the  Hebrew  Bible,  which  is  the  book  of  light 
and  the  gospel  of  liberty. 


LIBERTY   AND   LIGHT.  163 

An  emblem  typifying  these  principles  stands  at  the 
gateway  of  this  country.  When  travelers  from  the 
still  backward  countries  of  the  East,  fugitives  from 
lands  of  oppression,  first  spy  the  shore  of  this  abode 
of  freedom,  there  towers  into  view  from  New  York 
harbor  the  famous  Bartholdy  statue  which  its  maker 
has  boldly  named  "Libert}^  Enlightening  the  World." 
An  imposing  sight  is  that  statue,  the  gift  of  the  people 
of  France,  the  most  prominent  republic  of  the  old 
world  to  the  people  of  America,  the  great  repul^lic  of 
the  new  world,  with  its  colossal  figure  and  brilliant 
light  streaming  for  thirty  miles  down  the  coast. 
Though  it  may  be  presumption  to  speak  even  of  this 
triumphant  monument  of  genius  and  skill  as  enlight- 
ening the  whole  world,  yet  it  distinctly  symbolizes 
that  spirit  of  liberty  and  enlightenment  which  animates 
this   country   and   will    in   time   govern   the   world. 

Here  again  the  lesson  is  brought  out  that  the  two  prin- 
ciples must  go  together.  Either  one  is  worthless  with- 
out the  other.  Where  there  is  liberty  there  must  be  light. 
It  is  dangerous  for  people  to  have  freedom,  without 
having  wisdom  to  use  that  freedom.  Liberty  must  not 
become  license,  but  must  be  tempered  by  the  restraints 
of  law  and  order.  Hence  this  country,  in  contrast  to 
the  instance  before  cited,  dwells  on  the  need  of  educa- 
tion, provides  for  it,  and  insists  on  it ;  encourages  the 
spread  of  the  light  of  wisdom  ;  and  admonishes  that 
the  actions  of  its  citizens,  which  must  have  fullest 
freedom,  must  nevertheless  be  governed  by  the  princi- 
ples of  right  and  justice  and  truth.  When  our  ances- 
tors were  to  be  freed  from  Egypt  it  was  not  that  they 
might  run  riot,  and  pursue  any  whims  and  pleasures. 
The  divine  voice  spoke  to  Pharaoh  through  Moses  say- 
ing: "  Let  my  peoi)le  go  that  they  may  serve  me."  It 
exhorted  the  people,  ye  shall  be  slaves  to  no  man,  but 


164  LIBERTY   AND   LIGHT. 

ye  shall  be  slaves  to  me.  After  they  gained  deliver- 
ance, they  were  but  a  few  weeks  on  their  march  of  free- 
dom, when  they  were  made  to  halt  before  Mt.  Sinai, 
from  which  in  thundering  tones  were  proclaimed  the 
the  Ten  Commandments,  telling  them  what  they  must 
do  and  what  they  must  not  do.  After  they  had  lib- 
erty, then  came  from  Sinai's  summit  that  light  of  which 
the  Bible  speaks  in  the  words  "The  law  is  light."  Lib- 
erty means  not  freedom  to  do  what  you  please,  but 
freedem  to  do  what  you  ought.  So  in  all  our  actions, 
in  our  thoughts,  in  our  beliefs,  let  there  be  liberty 
but  let  there  also  be  the  light  of  guidance,  of  higher 
principle,  of  truth. 

My  friends,  the  mission  of  Israel  is  by  no  means  yet 
ended.  There  are  still  nations  groaning  in  servitude. 
There  is  still  much  darkness  of  ignorance,  error  and 
falsehood.  As  long  as  the  ideas  of  freedom  and  truth 
are  not  universally  prevalent,  we  must  stand  firm,  we 
must  lend  all  possible  efforts  to  aid  in  establishing 
them.  At  least  we  must  aid  the  cause  of  right  and 
justice  by  tearlessly  proclaiming  their  sovereignty  ;  and 
must  encourage  the  champions  of  these  by  unflinching 
assertion  of  our  faith  in  their  eventual  triumph,  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  cardinal  doctrine  of  our  religion. 
This  is  what  we  mean  by  our  teaching  of  a  Messianic 
time  of  whose  approach  we  have  firm  conviction.  This  is 
the  lesson  of  this  festival  of  Passover.  Our  sages  made 
the  redemption  it  commemorates,  the  prototype  of  the 
ultimate  redemption  of  mankind.  It  took  time  for 
Israel's  release  from  Egypt:  four  hundred  and  thirty 
years  did  they  while  in  bondage ;  but  the  deliverance 
did  come,  though  not  hoped  or  expected.  So  whatever 
doubts  we  may  have  as  to  the  progress  and  perfection 
of  humanity ;  it  will  take  time,  but  it  will  come. 
We   should  govern  our  actions  and  inspire  our  endeav- 


LIBERTY  AND  LIGHT.  165 

ors  for  reform  in  every  department,  by  a  firm  belief 
in  the  final  enfranchisement  of  mankind  from  the  do- 
minion of  error  and  wrong,  and  their  devotion  to 
the  principles  of  truth  and  justice.  The  world  will 
have  true  liberty^  when  all  nations  shall  be  bound  by 
ties  of  common  interest,  when  they  will  recognize  the 
welfare  of  all  in  the  welfare  of  each  ;  when  strife  be- 
tween them  shall  cease  and  all  be  united  in  the 
bonds  of  peace.  There  will  be  light  when  all  shall 
conquer  the  lower  instincts  and  desires,  abandon  the 
follies  of  ill-informed  understanding,  accept  the  dictates 
of  reason  and  govern  themselves  by  the  higher  princi- 
ples of  truth,  which  is  a  revelation  from  that  divine 
Power  whom  all  should  serve.  Let  the  prophets'  pic- 
ture of  that  Messianic  future  be  ever  before  the  eyes 
of  your  soul  and  until  it  is  realized  make  your  rule 
what  he  appends  as  his  final  exhortation  :  "  Then  many 
nations  shall  go  and  say  :  Come  ye  and  let  us  go  up 
to  the  mount  of  the  Lord,  to  the  house  of  the  God 
of  Jacob,  that  He  may  teach  us  His  ways  and  we  may 
walk  in  His  paths.  For  out  of  Zion  shall  go  forth  the 
law  and  the  word  of  the  Lord  from  Jerusalem.  And 
He  shall  judge  among  the  nations  and  shall  rebuke 
many  people.  And  they  shall  beat  their  swords  into 
ploughshares  and  their  spears  into  pruning  hooks.  Na- 
tion shall  not  lift  up  sword  against  nation ;  neither 
shall  they  learn  war  any  more.  O  house  of  Jacob, 
come  ye  to  let  us  walk  in  the  light  of  the  Lord.''^ 


FOUR  SENTIMENTS. 


A   PASSOVER   SERMON,    BY    REV.    DR.    MAX    LANDSBERG. 


After  a  long  winter's  season  we  have  assembled  in 
God's  liouse  in  larger  numbers  than  usual,  to  cele- 
brate, under  the  cheerful  rays  of  the  new  sun  of 
beautiful  spring,  the  resurrection  of  nature,  combined 
with  the  resurrection  of  our  ancestors  from  ancient 
Egyptian  bondage.  It  is  a  soul-inspiring  holiday.  ^It 
revives  and  renews  hope  and  energy,  it  confers  strength 
and  joyful   courage   to   fulfil   our   work   on    earth. 

Let  us  understand  the  full  significance  of  the  feast 
as  expressed  by  the  four  cups  of  wine  of  the  Seder 
night.  The  Jewish  religion  has  always  been  a  reli- 
gion of  the  home,  of  the  family.  If  we  wish  to 
cure  the  evils  of  which  our  generation  is  suffer- 
ing, we  must  restore  the  Jewish  house  to  its  old  priv- 
ileges. Every  Sabbath,  every  feast  day,  private 
and  public,  has  from  olden  times  been  made  the  oc- 
casion of  a  family  gathering.  At  the  table  the  happy 
and  susceptible  mood  has  been  used  to  arouse  and 
keep  alive  sentiments  of  piety,  of  charity  and  religion 
which  would  exert  a  sanctifying  and  lasting  influence 
upon  all  the  members  of  the  family  in  all  conditions. 
No  dinner  or  supper  table  was  ever  considered  per- 
fect without  a  sensible,  instructive  and  pleasant  con- 
versation.    Without   it,   the  meal  was  compared   to   the 


FOUR   SENTIMENTS.  167 

offerings  formerly  brought  to  tlie  dead ;  witli  it,  the 
majesty  of  God  himself,  as  it  were,  was  said  to 
partake  even  of  the  humblest  meal.  No  gathering 
of  the  family  or  friends  could  be  thought  of,  none  was 
complete  in  its  arrangements  without  a  cup  of  bless- 
ing, the  cup  of  wine  which  gladdeneth  the  heart  of 
man,  and  which — so  far  from  leading  to  dissipation 
and  debauchery — breathed  an  air  of  true  sanctification 
over  the  company  assembled.  The  word  Kiddush 
needs  no  translation  for  a  Jewish  audience.  Its  very 
sound  recalls  to  our  spiritual  eye  the  sweetest  pic- 
tures which  slumber  in  the  sacred  chambers  of  our 
memory.  It  carries  us  back  to  the  happy  days  of 
our  childhood,  when  father  and  mother,  surrounded 
by  their  children,  greeted  together  the  Sabbaths  and 
the  holydays  in  the  cheerful  room  brightened  with 
light ;  when,  after  their  return  from  the  house  of 
God,  the  real  celebration  began;  when  joy  filled  every 
heart,  all  cares  and  anxieties  of  the  daily  life  were 
forgotten  and  the  father  lifted  up  the  cup  and 
thanked  God  for  the  grace  with  which  He  had  pre- 
served us,  and  for  the  benefits,  worldly  and  spiritual. 
He  had  bestowed  upon  us ;  and  after  having  tasted 
of  the  wine,  let  the  cup  pass  around,  that  every 
member  of  the  household,  down  to  the  youngest 
child,  should  partake  of  it  after  him.  It  was,  in- 
deed, a  Kiddush,  a  consecration  and  sanctification,  not 
only  of  the  day,  but  of  the  family  also.  A  feel- 
ing of  holiness  pervaded  every  one,  and  no  word  or 
act  of  rudeness  was  possible  among  the  children  dur- 
ing the  meal  thus  initiated.  They  all  felt  hallowed ; 
a  spirit  of  good  cheer  and  kindness  had  entered  and 
was  sure  to  remain  with  them  during  the  Sabbath 
and  festival,  and  not  even  entirely  to  depart,  when, 
on   the   following   evening,   leave   was     taken    from   the 


l6^  ^oufe  sfeK^TikteNT^. 

holyday  again  with  a  cup  of  wine,  in  the  last  drops 
of  which  the  light  that  divided  the  Sabbath  from 
the  weekday  was  extinguished  with  that  characteristic 
and  familiar  crackling  noise,  never  to  be  forgotten. 
The  sweet  angels  who  accompanied  our  fathers  to 
their  home  on  the  Sabbath  eves  had  pronounced 
their  blessing.  The  holy  sensations  aroused  in  their 
soul  remained  a  living  power  during  the  struggles 
and   trials   of    the   coming  week. 

But,  while  at  every  occasion  one  cup  of  benedic- 
tion was  considered  as  sufficient,  there  was  one  great 
and  memorable  exception  on  the  most  distinguished 
evening  of  the  year,  on  the  evening  which  inaugur- 
ates this  beautiful  feast  of  the  si3ring  and  liberty; 
when,  instead  of  one,  it  became  obligatory  to  drink 
four  cups  of  wine,  when  every  one  had  to  celebrate 
an  unusual  feast  at  the  family  table,  and  even  the 
poor,  who  depend  on  the  gifts  of  their  more  fortun- 
ate brethren,  must  for  the  nonce  forget  their  depend- 
ence and  enjoy  in  this  night  of  watching  the  feeling 
of  largess  and  freedom,  when  the  cup  of  the  father 
shall  not  make  the  rounds  of  the  table,  but  the  wo- 
men must  also  have  their  four  cups,  and  even  every 
little  child  must  have  a  cup  of  wine  before  him  of 
suitable  size.  Not,  however,  for  the  mere  enjoyment 
of  a  good  meal  such  custom  was  introduced.  Con- 
nected with  these  four  cups  of  wine  are  the  highest 
and  loftiest  ideas  which  the  human  mind  is  capable 
of  thinking,  and  our  ancient  teachers  well  knew  that, 
thus  inculcated,  they  would  make  a  deeper  impres- 
sion and  be  surer  to  become  the  common  property  of 
the  whole  people,  than  by  formal  religious  instruction 
and   by   a  thousand   lectures   and   sermons. 

Four  times  we  are  directed  to  drink  a  cup  of  wine 
at    the    Seder    table,    but    not    before    the     father    has 


iFOUtl   SENTIMENTS.  169 

offered  a  sentiment.  And  these  four  sentiments  let  us 
now  consider  and  we  shall  understand  that  they  are 
still  worthy  being  proposed  and  remembered  once 
every  year  in  every  Jewish  family,  and  that  we  should 
try  to   make  them   tlie   property  of  the  human   race. 

The  first  sentiment  to  which  we  drank  last  night 
was  gratitude  to  God,  that  our  forefathers  were  set 
apart  to  know  God  and  to  recognize  His  will  before 
all  other  nations,  or  as  our  teachers  express  it,  to 
the   memory   of  our   father   Abraham. 

Kings  are  proud  and  noblemen  regard  themselves 
as  better  than  others,  if  they  can  trace  back  their  fam- 
ily tree  a  few  generations  more  than  their  fellow-men. 
Such  ancient  lineage,  they  imagine,  gives  them  a 
right  to  boast  of  better  blood  of  a  more  distinguished 
family  than  the  commoners,  and  even  if  the  ances- 
tor at  the  beginning  of  their  line  was  a  pirate  or  a 
highway  man,  or  one  who  has  reached  distinction  by 
trampling  under  foot  the  rights  of  others,  or  accum- 
ulated the  wealth  upon  which  the  power  of  his  fam- 
ily was  founded  by  grinding  down  the  poor  and 
robbing  the  helpless.  What  is  the  nobility  of  even 
the  mightiest  on  earth  compared  to  ours,  which  dates 
back  four  thousand  years,  what  their  family  tree,  if 
placed  side  by  side  with  ours,  which  contains  the  most 
illustrious  names  by  which  men  were  graced,  the 
names  of  those  who  are  honored  and  respected  and 
held  up  as  patterns  and  declared  as  holy  and  regarded 
as  inspired  by  all  civilized  men?  And  how;  did  those, 
our  patriarchs,  achieve  greatness  and  distinction?  By 
building  their  fortunes  upon  the  shattered  ruins  of  the 
possessions  of  others?  By  depriving  of  their  well- 
earned  and  established  rights  those  who  lived  around 
about  them  ?  By  no  means.  Was  there  ever  a  no- 
bler, a  more  beautiful,  a  more  admirable  character  than 


170  FOUR   SENTIMENTS. 

that  of  him  whom  we  call  our  father  Abraham?  A 
man  who  stood  in  tlie  midst  of  his  fellow-men  as  a 
prince  by  the  grace  of  God  himself,  he  would  rather 
suffer  wrong  than  inflict  pain  upon  the  meanest 
of  his  brethren ;  the  most  unselfish  friend  imaginable, 
who  paid  with  benefactions  and  deeds  of  charity  him 
who  had  been  so  ungratefnl  to  him  ;  who  was  liberal- 
minded  enough  to  pray  even  for  the  most  wicked  and 
degenerate;  who  was  justly  called  a  friend  of  God,  and 
whose  highest  ambition  it  was  to  make  a  covenant 
with  the  Heavenly  Father  for  himself  and  his  descend- 
ants, that  as  he  had  fulfilled  his  recognized  mission,  "  Be 
a  blessing"  to  thyself,  to  thy  family  and  thy  commun- 
ity, to  thy  people  and  mankind,  so  they  should  forever 
recognize  it  as  their  holiest  duty  to  be  a  blessing  to 
humanity,  to  do  the  noblest  missionary  work,  which 
does  not  mean  to  make  others  believe  as  we  do,  but  to 
teach  them  that  all  can  be  good  and  noble  and  virtu- 
ous, independent  of  their  honest  belief  which  is  their 
own  individual  property,  and  thus  fulfil  the  word  of 
God,  "  In  thee  and  thy  descendants  shall  all  the  fam- 
ilies  of  the  earth  be  blessed ! " 

Is  not  this  a  sentiment  worthy  being  proposed  and 
responded  to  once  a  year?  Must  it  not  have  the 
influence  of  a  sacred  inspiration  upon  our  children 
if  they  learn,  we  have  a  past  history,  four  thousand 
years  old,  upon  which  we  can  look  back  with  pride 
and  satisfaction,  but  which  also  entails  holy  duties 
upon  us  and  solemn  obligations,  which  it  would  be 
faithlessness   to   shirk. 

The  second  sentiment  is  one  which  has  inspired 
the  noblest  acts  whereby  mankind  has  ever  been 
graced.  It  is  independence  and  liberty  to  which  the 
second  cup  is  devoted.  It  is  to  the  memory  of 
Moses.       To   our   eternal   glory  the  idea  of  liberty  and 


t^OUR   SENTlMENl?S.  171 

human  rights,  forever  connected  with  the  name  of 
Moses,  had  its  origin  in  the  midst  of  Israel— a  cir- 
cumstance so  much  more  surprising,  as  it  is  in  direct 
conflict  with  the  conceptions  of  the  eastern  nations, 
in  whose  midst  the  Jewish  religion  was  born.  For 
among  the  oriental  nations  of  antiquity,  as  of  our 
day,  liberty  and  freedom  are  unknown  and  incompre- 
hensible terms.  There  the  individual  has  no  right, 
everyone  is  a  cipher  and  a  slave,  the  whole  people 
a  combination  of  men  whose  life  and  property  are 
owned  by  the  one  despotic  ruler.  So  it  is  to-day, 
so  it  was  in  olden  times.  King  Pharaoh  asked 
Moses,  ''Who  is  God,  that  I  should  listen  to  his 
voice,  I  know  him  not,"  I  am  God  myself  And 
how  much  would  despots  of  the  present  time  like  to 
act  in  the  same  spirit,  though  they  lack  the  boldness 
of  announcing  it  in  so  many  words!  How  many 
set  up  their  own  desires  and  inclinations  as  their 
highest,  their  only  law,  and  deny  the  existence  of 
anything  ideal  before  which  they  have  to  bow  down 
and  to  whose  dictates  they  have  to  yield  ?  Surely 
just  is  the  praise  which  the  latest  historian  (Fred.  M. 
Holland),  of  the  "rise  of  intellectual  liberty"  bestows, 
when  he  says,  "History  can  show  forth  no  grander 
figure  than   that   of    Moses   before  Pharoah." 

And  should  we  not  point  with  pride  at  this  mirac- 
ulous birth  of  lil:)erty  and  independence  amidst  our 
ancestors  ?  When  the  forefathers  of  the  most  highly 
civilized  nations  were  naked  savages  or  crude  bar- 
barians, the  Israelites  were  a  law-abiding  people  and 
excelled  through  the  consciousness  of  human  liberty 
and  the  respect  of  the  rights  •  even  of  the  stranger 
who  lived  in  their  midst.  And  is  not  this  second 
sentiment  the  noblest  one  imaginable?  And  is  it 
not  meet  to   remember  it    at    least    once    every    year, 


172  FOUR   SENTIMENTS. 

and  thereby  to  teach  the  lesson  to  each  and  even 
the  meanest,  that  he  is  born  free,  that  his  conscience 
needs  to  bow  down  before  no  human  master,  that  he 
is  at  liberty  to  choose  for  himself,  but  that  he  has 
also  to  bear  the  moral  responsibility  for  his  actions, 
of   which  none   can   relieve   him  ? 

The  third  cup  at  the  festive  board  is  devoted  to 
the  memory  of  our  suffering  fathers  in  their  long 
wanderings  without  rest  and  refuge  amidst  the  hatred 
and  prejudice  of  the  nations  so  undeservedly  heaped 
upon  their  innocent  heads.  "It  is  to  thank  God, 
that  he  has  watched  over  us  and  saved  us  amidst 
so  many  enemies,  and  has  preserved  us  amidst  so 
many  persecutions,  and  has  given  us  food  and  rai- 
ment,  and   never  forsaken  us." 

0,  how  pitiful  is  it,  that  this  long  history  of 
suffering  is  not  more  familiar  to  our  people  who  in 
ease  and  happiness  are  so  apt  to  forget  the  sad  experi- 
ence of  the  fathers!  How  inspiring  is  a  reminder  of 
their  heroic  deeds  and  the  great  sacrifices  they  were 
ever  ready  to  make  for  their  truth  and  the  freedom 
of  their  conscience.  Would  that  everyone  realized  the 
truth  so  beautifully  expressed  by  Zunz  and  translated 
by  George  Eliot,  "  If  there  are  ranks  in  suffering,  Israel 
takes  precedence  of  all  the  nations ;  if  the  duration  of 
sorrows  and  the  patience  with  which  they  are  borne 
ennoble,  the  Jews  are  among  the  aristocracy  of  every 
land ;  if  a  literature  is  called  rich  in  the  possession 
of  a  few  classic  tragedies,  what  shall  we  say  to  a  na- 
tional tragedy  lasting  for  fifteen  hundred  years,  in  which 
the  poets  and  the  actors  were  also  the  heroes"?  Who  can 
fail  to  be  filled  with  enthusiastic  love  for  his  people 
and  his  religion,  if  but  once  a  year  he  is  reminded 
of  those  heroes,  and  a  vista  is  opened  before  his  eyes 
of  many  generations  of  men,  women  and  children,  who 


FOUR   SENTIMENTS.  17?) 

were  always  ready  rather  to  give  up  their  life  than 
their  freedom  of  conscience,  their  independent  thinking  ? 
And  now  we  have  reached  the  fourth  and  noblest 
sentiment,  the  one  which,  natural  as  it  may  seem  to 
us,  reflects  the  highest  credit  upon  our  fathers,  and 
is  the  most  characteristic  feature  of  our  faith.  It  is 
the  sure  victory  of  liberty  in  the  future,  the  ultimate 
conquest  of  the  world  by  the  truth  of  God,  as  first  so 
confidently  announced  by  the  ancient  Jewish  prophets. 
This  firm  hope  and  unshaken  confidence  in  the  final 
establishment  of  virtue  and  justice  kept  our  forefathers 
courageous  amidst  their  seemingly  unbearable  trials 
and  the  continual  wrongs  they  had  to  endure.  It  re- 
vived their  enthusiasm,  so  that  in  spite  of  constant 
disappointments  they  would  never  grow  tired  to  repeat 
every  year,  "  Though  this  year  we  are  slaves,  next 
year  we  shall  be  free  men."  They  were  swayed  by 
the  conviction,   that 

"Freedom's  battle,  once  begun, 

Bequeathed  by  bleeding  sire  to  son, 

Though  baffled  oft,  is  ever  won." 

This  noble  sentiment  has  become  constitutional  with 
the  Jews  from  long  inheritance.  Since  the  oldest  times 
the  so-called  Passover  of  Egypt  had  always  been  cele- 
brated with  reference  to  the  Passover  of  the  future,  the 
deliverance  from  spiritual  as  from  bodily  bondage, 
which  was  expected  in  the  future  time,  and  as  early  a 
prophet  as  Jeremiah  could  say,  "  Behold  days  are 
coming,  saitli  the  Eternal,  when  they  shall  no  more  say 
'  as  the  Eternal  liveth  who  brought  up  the  children 
of  Israel  from  the  land  of  Egypt,'  but  'as  the  Eternal 
liveth  who  brought  forth  the  descendants  of  Israel  fi-om 
all  the  countries  whither  I  had  driven  them.'" 

In   the  Jewish  religion  it  has  always  been  recognized 
that    no    ceremonies    can    retain    their    vitality    which 


174  FOUR   SENTIMENTS. 

refer  only  to  the  past,  but  while  refreshing  the  memory 
of  the  past  history,  they  must  deal  with  hve  issues, 
must  consider  the  present  time  and  continually  di- 
rect our  look  upon  ideals  to  be  realized  in  the  fu- 
ture. Our  fathers  in  their  toils  and  in  their  misery 
never  tired  to  repeat  this  hopeful  sentiment,  the  fourth 
cup  is  devoted  to  the  final  establishment  of  freedom, 
the  victory  of  justice  and  truth;  they  became  never 
weary  of  inculcating  it  into  the  minds  of  their 
children  until  at  last  thc}^  reached  the  only  freedom 
and  liberty  in  store  for  them,  that  of  the  grave,  and 
though  they  were  laughed  and  scoffed  at  by  their 
adversaries,  for  resigning  worldly  happiness  on  account 
of  an  ideal  hope,  never  gave  up  their  sublime  ex- 
pectations. 

We  can  celebrate  our  Pesach  festival  with  a  lighter 
heart  than  our  fathers,  and  in  the  third  sentiment 
already  we  are  able  to  include  the  termination  of  the 
wrongs  and  the  injustice  under  which  we  had  to  suf- 
fer. For  before  all  other  countries  of  the  earth  our  be- 
loved land  was  dedicated  to  freedom,  was  predestined 
by  Providence  for  liberty,  and,  while  lacking  the  at- 
traction of  romantic  ruins  of  mediaeval  castles,  its  vir- 
gin soil  has  never  been  violated  by  the  footstep  of 
the  tyrant  who  tramples  human  rights  under  foot  for 
his  own  advantage  and  aggrandizement.  Liberty  was 
destined  to  rule  this  favored  land,  and  from  it  her 
sway  shall  spread  to  the  uttermost  corners  of  the 
globe,  to  fulfil  the  ancient  word,  "In  thee  shall  all 
generations   of  the   earth  be   blessed." 

But  is  it  therefore  now  time  to  discard  the  fourth 
sentiment?  True  freedom  is  still  an  unrealized  ideal 
of  the  future  for  which  we  have  to  work  hard,  as 
long  as  there  is  not  a  perfect  mutual  understanding 
between   all    classes    of    men    and    all    denominations, 


FOUR   SENTIMENTS.  175 

that  goodness  and  virtue  and  charity  and  love  are 
not  the  property  of  one  part  of  the  community  to 
the  exclusion  of  all  others,  but  are  perfectly  unsec- 
tarian,  independent  of  the  mere  accident  of  the  re- 
ligious creed,  the  common  good  of  all  men,  only 
limited  by  the  boundaries  of  a  common  humanity. 
Freedom  and  liberty  will  only  be  won  when  the 
ideal  of  our  old  prophets  is  generally  understood  of 
the  universal  fatherhood  of  God  and  the  universal 
brotherhood  of  man.  In  the  broad  light  of  day  we 
must  teach  this  essence  of  our  faith  not  by  words 
merely  but  by  actions,  not  only  by  professing  it  as  a 
creed  but  by  deed,  by  working  in  harmony  with  all 
our  fellow  citizens  for  every  good  and  noble  aim, 
ever  ready  to  make  sacrifices,  as  taught  by  the  ex- 
amples of  our  Mhers,  never  deterred  from  practicing 
love  and  charity  in  the  broadest  sense,  even  when 
we  have  to  suffer  from  narrow-mindedness  and  have 
to  face  remnants  of  mediaeval  prejudice.  Only  then 
can  we  expect  to  do  our  share  in  the  work  of  Israel 
to  prepare  a  time  when  all  men  will  grant  to  each 
other  full  and   unlimited   liberty. 

Let  us  continue  every  year  to  drink  our  four  cups 
to  the  sentiments  proposed  on  the  Seder  night,  Abra- 
ham, the  founder  of  Israel's  mission,  Moses,  the 
father  of  liberty  and  independence,  our  noble,  suffer- 
ing sires,  and  our  hope  for  ever-growing  freedom  and 
enlightenment. 


JUDAISM   AND    TEMPERANCE. 


SKETCH    OF   A    SERMON    FOR    PESA'h,    BY    DR.    G.    GOTTHEIL. 


Text:      Thou  shalt  surely  admonish  thy    neighbor    and    bear 
no  sin  on  account  of  him.      (Leviticus  xix-17.) 

The  chief  elements  of  the  Paschal  meal  ("ITD)  with 
which  we  open  the  celebration  of  our  ancient  festival 
are :  The  unleavened  bread,  the  bitter  herbs  and 
the  wine.  Of  these  three  the  latter  is  a  Pharisaic 
addition  to  what  the  written  law  prescribes.  Its  sym- 
bolism is  uncertain.  Perhaps,  as  the  unleavened 
bread  is  called  "bread  of  misery,"  the  wine  was 
added  as  a  sign  of  festal  joy.  Jesus,  in  celebrating 
his  last  Passover,  treated  the  tradition  of  the  fathers 
with  the  same  deep  reverence  as  the  revealed  law; 
blessed  both  and  instituted  both  as  mementos  of  his 
life ;  nay,  in  predicting  his  future  triumph  he  omitted 
bread  and  chose  the  wine  as  a  pledge  of  hope, 
which  he  assured  his  disciples  he  will  drink 
new  in  his  father's  kingdom.  Jesus  solemnly  recog- 
nized Pharisaism  as  preordained  by  God  for  the 
founding  of  the  new  covenant.  He  laid  into  the 
foundation  stone  of  the  church  a  scroll  on  which  the 
Scriptural  and  the  traditional  law  were  traced  with 
the  same  characters.  The  Paschal  wine  of  rabbinical 
invention  became  the  sacramental  element  on  the 
Catholic   altar    and    in    the    Protestant   Lord's   Supper, 

(176) 


JUDAISM   AND   TEMPERANCE.  177 

which  is  something  worth  remembering  when  the 
"  Pharisaic  enlargements  of  the  law "  are  spoken  of. 
A  new  interest  has  been  awakened  by  the  temperance 
agitation.  Was  the  wine  Jesus  drank  fermented  or 
not?  If  the  former,  then  there  can  be  no  wrong 
in  its  use ;  if  the  latter,  his  authority  cannot  be  in- 
voked against  total  abstinence.  In  other  words,  the 
Pharisee  of  old  must  decide  for  the  Christian  of  to- 
day, whether  he  may  drink  fermented  wine  or  not. 
Their  spiritual  heir,  the  rabbi  of  to-day,  is  asked 
time  and  again  to  declare  the  law  of  God  in  this 
particular  matter.  His  answer  can  be  only  one — 
fermented  wines  were  never  prohibited  if  kept  from 
contact  with  leaven,  which  is  restricted  to  fermented 
grain  products  only.  We  are  sorry  we  cannot  offer 
the  temperance  reformer  the  much-coveted  comfort  of 
the  example  of  Jesus.  We  may  render  him  more 
substantial   aid. 

Not  as  total  abstainers  or  total  prohibitionists,  but 
as  a  sober  people,  who  have  been  effectively  taught 
by  their  religion  to  use  every  gift  of  God  and  not 
to  abuse  it.  The  Jew  has  positively  no  understand- 
ing for  this  violent  remedy.  The  demand  for  total 
suppression  is  a  loud  protest  against  the  culpable 
laxity  of  the  law  in  dealing,  or,  rather,  in  failing  to 
deal,  with  the  most  prolific  source  of  evil  in  the  land, 
but  the  Jew,  in  this  respect,  is  a  law  unto  himself, 
and  does  not  wait  for  the  policemen  to  keep  him  from 
the  clutches  of  the  unscruj)ulous  rum -seller  or  the 
more  refined  tempter  in  artistic  halls  of  Bacchus. 
Total  abstinence  springs  from  a  loathing  of  the 
poisoned  cup  from  which  thousands  drink  destruction 
and  death.  But,  as  in  the  dread  days  of  Egypt's 
judgment,  the  j^lague  has  not  entered  our  homes  and 
so    we    do    not   "fear    the    wine    because   it    is     red," 


178  JUDAISM  AND  tp:mperance. 

The  genius  of  our  religion  is  anti-asoetir.  It  frowns 
upon  the  Nazarite  as  being  more  of  a  sinner  than  a 
saint,  because  he  needs  extra  bridles  to  tame  his  pas- 
sions. It  looks  upon  the  over-pious  man,  who  tor- 
tures himself  with  long  fasts,  as  one  given  to  folly, 
and  declares  it  more  meritorious  to  offer  to  God  the 
round  sum  of  one  hundred  daily  benedictions  for 
blessings  enjoyed  than  to  smite  the  breast  and  weary 
the  tongue  with  penitential  lamentations.  We  have 
no  cause  for  total  abstinence  among  us,  but  we  have 
every  reason  to  sympathize  with  those  who  have  such 
a   cause. 

It  is  certainly  not  for  us  to  ridicule  the  large  class 
of  our  best  citizens,  who  see  no  other  means  of  cop- 
ing with  the  scourge;  a  scourge  that  slays  its  sixty 
thousand  otherwise  healthy  men  and  women  annually 
in  this  country  alone  and  brings  ruin  to  a  hundred 
thousand  homes,  where,  but  for  that  curse,  peace  and 
happiness  might  reign.  The  prohibitionist  policy  is 
a  heroic  treatment  of  a  disease  that  seems  to  yield 
to  no  more  lenient  handling.  We  think  their  rem- 
edy Utopian.  We  Jews  have  an  excellent  outlet  for 
all  too  ideal  schemes — we  relegate  them  to  the  time 
of  the  Messiah.  When  the  lion  shall  decline  the 
lamb  that  browses  by  his  side  and  be  content  with 
eating  straw,  men  will  probably  also  cease  craving 
for  stimulants  and  choose  water  rather  than  wine. 
When  the  last  sword  shall  have  been  beaten  into  a 
ploughshare,  then  may  men  refuse  to  earn  money  by 
supplying  a  universal  w^ant.  As  things  now  are  the 
millions  invested  in  an  industry  giving  bread  to  many 
honest  people  and  the  need  of  beverage  other  than 
water,  tea  or  coffee  make  all  schemes  looking  to 
total  suppression  hopeless,  and,  what  is  worse,  drive 
many  moderate  men  into  the  camp   of  the  rum-sellers. 


JUDAISM    AND    TEMPERANCE.  179 

Instead  of  wasting  time,  strength,  money  and  elo- 
quence on  a  policy  certainly  doomed  to  failure  and 
arousing  violent  opposition,  strict  legal  control  ought 
to  be  insisted  upon,  and  when  legalized  strenuously 
enforced.  In  this  scale  we  ought  to  throw  the  whole 
weight  of  our  experience  and  our  influence.  Here 
is  the  point  to  join  hands  and  hearts  with  those 
who  strive  to  break  the  yoke  under  which  our  na- 
tion is  groaning.  Good,  effective  laws,  carried  out 
with  a  strong,  impartial  arm — this  is  what  the  Jews 
should   stand   for. 


FREEDOM,  JUSTICE  AND  FIDELITY. 


A    PASSOVER   SERMON,    BY    REV.    DR.    I.    M.    WISE. 


Text:  "  Exalted  is  Jehovah,  enthroned  on  high ;  he  fiUeth 
Zion  with  justice  and  righteousness.  The  stability  of  thy 
times,  the  fort  of  salvation  is  wisdom  and  cognition  ;  the 
fear  of  Jehovah  is  its  treasury."    (Isaiah   xxxxiii,  5,  6.) 

The  Mosaic  Law  enjoins  repeatedly  and  very  sol- 
emnly the  duty  upon  the  people  to  remember  the 
departure  of  Israel  from  Egypt,  never  to  forget  that 
they  were  slaves  in  that  land,  and  the  Almighty  re- 
deemed them  with  a  strong  hand  and  an  outstretched 
arm.  The  revelation  on  Mount  Sinai  begins  with  this 
memorial.  The  Sabbath  commandment  refers  to  it. 
Every  holy  day  ordained  in  the  Law  is  Hi^''^^^  "IDT 
D^l^D.  The  Passover  feast  was  especially  instituted, 
"  That  thou  mayest  remember  the  day  of  thy  going 
out  of  the  land  of  Egypt  all  the  days  of  thy 
life";  this  "a/^  the  days  of  thy  lije^^  one  of  the  ancient 
sages  understood  to  signify,  we  should  be  reminded 
of  that  event  day  and  night,  others  saw  in  it  much 
more  than  that,  they  understood  these  words  to  com- 
mand or  prophesy  that  the  memorial  of  the  exodus 
from  Egypt  shall  never  be  forgotten,  not  even  then, 
when  a  M.essiah  should  liberate  Israel  again  from 
bondage  and  servitude.  The  importance  of  that  event 
in  the  life  and  religion  of  Israel  is  evident.     Why  is  it  ? 

The  replies  to  this  query  are  numerous.  The  first  is, 
that  a  nation  was  born  on  that  memorable  day;  it  wa^ 

(180) 


iFitmboU,  JtlsMcE  anB  fidelity.  l8l 

the  natal  clay  of  the  first  independent  nation  constituted 
upon  the  principles  of  liberty  and  equality — Israel  was 
born,  the  first  people  that  started  into  existence  with 
a  Declaration  of  Independence  and  the  proclamation 
of  liberty  and  equality,  and  Was  solemnly  enjoined, 
never  to  forget  for  a  moment  the  principle,  which 
is  the  cause  of  its  national  existence,  the  end  and 
aim  of  its  political  organization,  the  first  message  to 
humanity  it  was  redeemed  and  appointed  to  promul- 
gate in  words  and  deeds.  Therefore  the  Passover  is 
called   in   Israel's   liturgy   "  the  time  of  our  liberation." 

This  is  not  of  political  importance  only.  It  is  also 
of  the  highest  moral  importance.  Freedom  is  the  in- 
dispensable condition  of  goodness,  virtue,  purity  and 
holiness.  The  free  man  only  can  be  virtuous,  moral 
and  honorable.  The  slave,  whose  doings  are  compul- 
sory, coerced  to  do  this  and  shun  that,  forced  to  act 
so  and  not  otherwise,  the  person  without  a  free  will  is 
neither  virtuous  nor  wicked,  neither  moral  nor  immoral, 
neither  honorable  nor  despicable,  all  his  doings  are 
indifferent  as  that  of  the  animal,  the  tree,  the  fire  or 
any  other  element.  Take  away  freedom  from  human 
nature  and  whatever  remains  of  it  is  an  anomaly, 
some  nameless  thing  of  human  form  and  animal 
indifference.  "  Wisdom  and  cognition,"  of  which  the 
prox^het  speaks  as  "  the  stability  of  thy  times  and  the 
fort  of  thy  salvation,"  are  the  golden  fruits  of  the 
free  reason,  the  free-willed  man  only,  they  ripen  not  in 
the  dark  and  dismal  dungeon  of  the  enslaved  soul. 

Truly  so,  says  the  man  of  common  sense,  but  all 
this  is  in  human  nature  without  the  memorial  of  the 
exodus,  which  seems  to  be  a  superfluous  symbol.  As 
long  as  history  records  man  struggled  for  liberty,  and 
so  he  struggles  yet.  He  struggled  and  prevailed,  he 
struggled  and  failed,   only   to   renew  the   combat  again. 


182  i'REKDOM,  JIJSTtCE   AND   FIDELITY. 

Independence,  liberty  and  equality  are  the  watchwords 
in  the  combat,  the  painful  struggles  of  humanity  in 
the  process  of  history.  Truly  so,  we  might  say,  but 
it  is  combat  and  struggle  and  defeat  all  the  time. 
Why  is  it  thus?  Simply  because  one  ^lortion  of  hu- 
manity feels  and  maintains  that  freedom  is  man's 
birthright;  another,  if  not  the  most  numerous,  evi- 
dently the  most  powerful  class  of  the  human  fam- 
ily, ever  did,  and  does  now,  hold  that  mnn  is  a  being 
that  must  be  tamed,  managed,  oppressed,  ruled,  kept 
under  the  iron  rod  of  despotism,  for  he  is  not  born 
free  and  the  largest  portion  of  mankind  is  without 
capacity  for  freedom,  reason  or  conscience;  state  and 
church  must  continually  supply  the  rabble  with  these 
treasures.  It  is  evidently  this  illogical  dialectics  which 
that  perpetual  combat  and  struggle  in  the  process  of 
history  demonstrate;  and  there  is  none  to  decide 
which  is  the  riglit,  which  is  the  wrong  position ;  any- 
how none  has  done  so  yet.  There  is  as  much  theo- 
logy and  philosophy  on  the  one  side  as  on  the  other, 
as  much  history  also  for  the  one  faction  as  for  the 
other.  History  is  a  series  of  drawn  battles  between  the 
two  armies,  and  none  has  as  yet  spoken  the  last 
word,  which  is  right  and  which  is  wrong. 

The  only  decision  handed  down  from  the  highest 
court,  the  court  on  high,  in  favor  of  freedom,  liberty 
and  equality,  is  the  divine  revelation,  the  manifesta- 
tion of  Almighty  God  in  the  exode  of  Israel  from 
Egypt,  the  liberation  from  bondage.  In  that  event  Is- 
rael's Thorah  narrates  that  God  spoke  in  favor  of 
freedom,  the  Almighty  decided  the  vexatious  question. 
Therefore,  I  think,  all  the  miracles  narrated  in  con- 
nection with  that  exode  were  originally  intended  to  de- 
clare and  to  prove  that  God  did  so,  God  thus  made 
known    his    will    to    his    children    that    man    shall   be 


FREEDOM,   JUSTICE   AND    FIDELITY.  183 

free,  as  the  prophet  verily  declares,  "  The  fear  of  Jeho- 
vah is  its  treasury";  the  religious  belief  of  Israel— this 
is  the  Yirath  Jehovah — in  that  exode  is  the  treasury 
of  freedom,  this  is  its  evidence,  its  divine  support,  its 
eternal  rock,  and  naught  besides  it.  Therefore  that 
Thorah  again  and  anon  enjoins  upon  us  the  duty  not 
to  forget,  never  to  forget  "  the  day  of  thy  going  out 
from  the  land  of  Egypt  all  the  days  of  thy  life." 

Freedom,  intellectual,  moral  and  political,  is  a  gift 
of  our  heavenly  Father  to  His  children  to  enable  them 
to  become  humanly  perfect  and  perfectly  happy,  to 
attain  the  ultimate  good,  whatever  this  may  be.  Still 
this  much  is  sure,  that  human  happiness  is  the  golden 
fruit  of  human  perfection,  not  the  perfection  of  one 
individual  or  one  class,  but  the  human  perfection  of 
the  human  family.  Freedom  without  equality  is  a 
false  conception,  as  those  individuals  or  classes  that 
are  excluded  from  the  enjoyment  of  equal  rights  with 
others  are  as  much  enslaved  as  those  deprived  of  the 
rights  guaranteed  to  others.  Therefore  it  is  self-evident 
that  justice  is  the  inseparable  companion  of  freedom, 
justice  to  all  persons,  things,  claims,  opinions,  behefs. 
Before  we  can  think  of  love,  charity,  benevolence,  even 
wisdom  and  cognition,  any  intellectual  or  moral  ex- 
ercise of  freedom  which  we  call  virtue,  we  must  nec- 
essarily be  just  to  all.  So  the  prophet  says  of  God 
that  He  provides  salvation  for  all  His  children.  "He 
filleth   Zion  with  justice  and   righteousness." 

With  us  this  is  the  ethical  principle,  man  is  a  free 
moral  agent,  freedom  is  his  birthright;  this  is  purely 
subjective,  the  objective  reverse  of  which  is  the  cate- 
goric imperative,  man  must  be  just.  History  and 
philosophy,  however,  do  not  exemplify  this  principle. 
There  is  no  wrong  imaginable  which  at  one  time  and 
place   or  another  has  not    been   forced     upon    suffering 


184  FREEDOM,   JUSTICE   AND   FIDELITY. 

humanity  as  a  dictum  of  justice  sanctioned  by  State, 
Church,  domineering  petty  tyrants  or  mighty  poten- 
tates. Egotism  forged  laws,  despotism  enforced  them, 
all  without  any  appeal  to  justice.  Revolutions,  only 
with  long  intervals  between,  demanded  justice.  Com- 
pare the  ancient  codes  of  Greece  and  Rome,  including 
those  of  Theodosius,  the  Goths  and  the  Church,  think 
of  the  feudal  law  which  is  still  partly  in  force;  of  the 
despotic  governments  not  extinguished  yet;  think  of 
the  oppression,  persecution,  torture  and  slaughter  to 
which  were  subjected  Jews,  heathens,  schismatics,  in- 
fidels, foreigners,  serfs,  slaves,  the  vast  majority  of 
mankind ;  think  of  the  wrongs  and  outrages  perpe- 
trated yet  under  our  very  eyes,  partly  even  in  our 
own  country,  and  tell  where  is  the  principle  of  justice 
actualized  in  the  history  of  mankind.  The  impartial 
and  fair-minded  observer  can  find  in  every  chapter 
of  history  only  arbitrary  selfishness,  reckless  egotism 
forging  laws,  irresponsible  and  remorseless  despotism 
enforcing  them  upon  enslaved  and  persecuted  masses, 
blind  dupes  of  State  and  Church,  submerged  in  su- 
perstition, enraged  to  fanaticism,  dancing  or  groaning 
madly  upon  the  graves  of  freedom  and  justice.  There- 
fore, philosophy  does  not,  cannot  tell  with  any  de- 
gree of  certainty  what  justice  and  righteousness  are, 
because  history  is  its  sole  source,  and  in  this  neither 
justice  nor  righteousness  are  actualized  anywhere  or 
at  any  time.  Therefore  the  history  of  ethics  is  a  long 
chain  of  errors,  each  reasoner  seeks  to  correct  the 
errors  of  his  predecessors  and  producing  new  fallacies 
to  be  corrected  by  his  successor.  The  progress 
achieved  in  2500  years  in  this  continuous  wrestling  of 
the  spirits  amounts  not  yet  to  an  established  code  of 
ethics,   of  freedom  and  justice. 

Here  again   your  Thorah   steps   in    with  a  resolution. 


^RriEDOM,  JUSTICE  ANt>  S^lDEilTV.  l85 

decision  and  certitude,  which  apparently  is  not  of 
man,  and  tells  you  what  is  justice  objectively,  what 
is  righteousness  subjectively ;  and  all  nations  possess 
only  that  much  of  those  divine  treasures,  as  they 
have  taken,  adopted  and  carried  into  practice  from  that 
Thorah.  Strike  out  from  the  codes  of  humanity  that 
which  is  taken  from  Moses  and  the  prophets,  and  what 
remains  are  blank  leaves  with  some  uncertainties  here 
and  there  which,  like  Jonah's  gourd,  spring  up  over 
night  and  perish  over  night.  Here  again  your  Thorah 
comes  in  and  enjoins  upon  you  "Remember  that  thou 
wast  a  servant  in  the  land  of  Egypt,  and  the  Lord 
thy  God  redeemed  thee."  God  himself,  the  ancient 
expounders  add — God  himself  did  it,  not  by  an  angel, 
not  by  a  messenger,  not  by  a  mediator,  not  by  a 
Messiah,  king  or  priest,  but  He  himself  in  his  glory 
did  it.  God  revealed  himself  in  that  redemption  as  the 
God  of  justice  who  sets  free  the  oppressed  and  pun- 
ishes the  oppressor  —who  executes  justice,  evenhanded 
justice,  He  is  himself  the  eternal  justice,  and  has  told 
man  what  is  justice,  and  how  to  be  or  to  become 
righteous;  to  "fill  Zion  with  justice  and  righteousness." 
It  is  only  from  the  exodus  that  we  know  God's  jus- 
tice, for  there  is  reward  on  the  one  side  and  pun- 
ishment on  the  other,  and  the  punishment  also  is  for 
the  correction  of  the  wicked,  "And  the  Egyptians  shall 
know  that  I  am  the  Lord."  It  is  from  the  Thorah 
only  that  we  know  what  is  justice  objectively  and 
righteousness  subjectively  among  men  of  freedom,  that 
seek   human  perfection,   the  fort   of  salvation. 

Fidelity,  the  inviolable  adherence    to    and    unshaken 

reliance   upon  God  and   his  laws  of   freedom    and    jus- 

.    tice,    is    the  third    cornerstone,   upon    which   rests   the 

/  structure  of  the  Thorah.     Fidelity  is   the  import  of  the 

covenant  between   God  and  Israel,   the   covenant  which 


186  FREEDOM,  JUSTICE   AND  FIDELITY. 

was  made  at  the  foot  of  Horeb.  It  is  that  ^3^D^< 
"inj;  "stability  of  thy  times"  which  the  prophet 
calls  ''the  fort  of  salvation";  the  treasury  of  which  is 
that  "Yirath  Jehovah,"  the  religion  of  Israel.  Moses, 
Isaiah,  Jeremiah  and  most  of  the  other  men  and  mes- 
soni^ers  of  God  prophesied,  that  this  fidelity,  this  cov- 
enant sliall  remain  forever  inviolable;  inviolable  on  the 
part  of  God,  inviolable  also  on  the  part  of  Israel. 
On  the  part  of  God  it  must  be  inviolable,  for  He  is 
the  n^lDS  bi<  God  of  fidelity,  ever  true,  ever  faithful, 
immutable  and  unchangeable.  Man's  sins  do  not  an- 
nul God's  promise  to  Israel,  the  ancient  expounders 
of  the  Thorah  maintained,  basing  upon  Moses  (Levi- 
ticus xxvi,  44,  45)  which  underlies  also  the  similar 
prophesies  of    Isaiah,   Jeremiah    and   Ezekiel. 

Wonderful  is  the  fidelity  of  Israel  in  its  steadfast 
adherence  to  the  covenant.  There  exists  no  nation  on 
earth  that  preserved  the  God  or  the  gods,  the  reli- 
gion, the  literature,  the  language  of  their  ancestors  of 
old,  none  besides  Israel.  Most  nations  changed  their 
faith  several  times,  abandoned  and  forgot  their  gods, 
abandoned  and  condemned  their  ancestors  in  their 
graves,  forgot  their  languages,  aye  forgot  where  their 
cradles  stood  and  where  the  graves  of  their  ancestors 
are.  Most  all  nations  are  the  children  of  renegades 
in  religion,  language  and  country.  Israe-1  alone  kept 
its  faith  to  its  fathers  and  the  God  of  its  fathers, 
their  religion,  language  and  literature.  Israel  alone,  dis- 
persed among  the  nations  these  2000  years,  without  a 
visible  head,  without  a  country,  standing  everywhere  and 
constantly  within  reach  of  the  enemy's  deadly  weapons, 
maintained  its  identity  with  all  its  peculiarities  as 
Isaiah  prophesied  2500  years  ago,  "And  their  seed  will 
be  known  among  the  nations,  their  offspring  among 
the   peoples ;   all  that    see    them    will    recognize    them 


t^REEt>OM,   JUSTICE   AND  FIDELITY.  187 

that  the}^   are   the   seed    blessed    of  the    Lord."     This 
is  unshaken  fidelity,  this   is   divine   covenant,  or  rather 
the   proof  thereof,    the   testimony  of    living    witnesses. 
After    a   hundred    generations   passed    away   the    world 
has   changed,  rocks   have   been  ground  to   dust,  moun- 
tains leveled,  seas  dried  up,  here  stands    the   one  hun- 
dred  and   first  generation   with   the    same   God,   Bible, 
language,    the    same   hopes    and     faith — this     is     fidel- 
ity,    this    is    divine    covenant    and    irrefutable    proof. 
This   is  a   special  feature  of  Israel's   character,  it  is  the 
nation   of  fidelity,  therefore  it   is   the   covenant   people. 
Fidelity,     stern    and     immutable     adherence    to     any 
ideal  cause,  is  tlie  natural  consequence  of    wisdom  and 
cognition,    and    the   fear   of    the   Lord    is    its    treasury. 
Those     who     embrace   a   cause     without     wisdom     and 
cognition   and   are   not  supported  by   a  strong  religious 
conviction,   will   naturally   waver  and    change    and   de- 
sert their  flag    occasionally    and    repeatedly.       If    you 
find    any    man    changing    principles     every    now    and 
then,   contradicting   himself    on   main    principles,   flying 
from   his   own   center  in    a    tangent,  you     will    surely 
come   to   the   conclusion   that   man   did  not  reason  cor- 
rectly   at    the    start ;    when    he    embraced   that    ideal 
cause,   he  lacked   wisdom    and    cognition   from   the  be- 
ginning,  or  he   has   not  religious   conviction  enough  to 
sustain   him   in    the    position    taken.       This    was    the 
case   with   the   nations    with    their    infidelity     and   de- 
sertions.      This   is   the   case   with   all   wavering,   chang- 
ing,  self-opposing   individuals.       The   reverse   thereof  is 
also   true,  if    one  embraces  an  ideal  cause,  and  adheres 
to  it  firmly  under  all  trying  circumstances,  all  afflictions 
and   obstacles,    that    cause    must    be    one    of    wisdom 
and   true  cognition,  rooted  in   the   depth  of   reason  and 
the  opulence  of   religious  conviction.      Israel's  unshaken 
fidelity     is     a     strong   evidence    of    the    truth    of    the 


188  i^Itl5Eb6M,  JtlSTtCfi  ANb  tTDEMV. 

cause,  to  which  it  did  and  does  cling  and  will  fbl' 
evermore.  This  fidelity  is  the  testimony  that  Israel 
is  the  covenant  people,  and  the  substance  of  this 
covenant  is  truth,  freedom  and  justice  manifested  by 
this  noble  virtue  of  fidelity  to  the  cause,  as  also  to 
the  human  family,  the  country,  the  society,  fidelity 
in   all  walks   of   life. 

This  fidelity  is  a  law  of  God,  an  attribute  of  the 
eternal  Deity  as  well  as  freedom  and  justice.  There- 
fore again  the  Thorah  enjoins  so  often  upon  the 
covenant  people  to  remember  the  exodus  from  Egypt, 
as  that  was  the  ocular  demonstration  of  God's  fidel- 
ity, God's  faithfulness,  God  as  the  El  Emunah,  as 
Moses  in  his  last  song  proclaimed  Him.  What  He 
had  promised  to  the  fathers,  as  the  Thorah  narrates, 
he  fulfilled  to  their  descendants  three  centuries  later, 
as  Moses  tells  us  (Deuter.  vii,  6-9).  The  exodus 
was  the  evidence  that  Jehovah  is  the  God  of  free- 
dom, justice  and  inviolable  truthfulness,  and  there  is 
none  besides  him.  These  are  the  three  pillars  of 
Israel's  religion,  not  because  it  is  so  true  and  right 
in  our  opinion,  which  runs  contrary  to  the  world's 
opinion,  actualized  in  the  world's  history,  but  because 
God  manifested  himself  to  Israel  in  the  exodus  from 
Egypt  in  his  attributes  of  freedom,  justice  and  fidel- 
ity, and  made  these  high  and  exalted  towers  of 
strength  the  indestructible  monuments  of  his  covenant 
with  Israel  forever.  Therefore  in  remembering  the 
departure  from  Egypt  we  unfurl  again  the  immacu- 
late banner  of  Israel,  the  symbol  of  truth,  which  is 
in   freedom,  justice   and   fidelity. 


THE  TEN  COMMANDMENTS,  OR  OLD 
PICTURES    IN    NEW  FRAMES. 


BY    REV.    DR.    HENRY    BERKOWITZ,    PHILADELPHIA. 


The  texts  which  are  emblazoned  in  most  command- 
ing letters  upon  the  scrolls  of  sacred  writ  spell  out 
the  telling  mandates  of  the  Asereth  Hadibb^roth  n*l^j; 
minn.  We  familiarly  call  them  the  Ten  Command- 
ments, but  more  correctly  they  are  ten  precepts,  or 
propositions.  It  is  sometimes  said,  "  Let  a  man  keep 
the  ten  commandments  and  he  will  fulfil  all  the  re- 
quirements of  religion."  This  is  truth,  but  not  the 
whole  truth.  He  must  keep  all  that  the  commandments 
express,  but  also  much  more.  They  are  the  seed, 
not  the  ripened  fruit,  nor  the  full  blown  flower.  They 
are  the  cornerstone  of  religion.  The  cornerstone  but 
not  the  capstone.  The  foundation  but  not  the  build- 
ing. These  are  the  axioms  of  conduct.  The  axioms 
of  mathematics  are  not  all  of  mathematics.  But  based 
on  these  self-evident  truths  are  all  the  propositions 
of  Euclid.  The  architect  and  the  engineer  start  with 
these  fundamentals  and  with  them  they  work  out  the 
exact  and  detailed  calculations  by  which  a  bridge  is 
built  to  sustain  so  many  thousand  tons,  or  a  building 
to  serve  as  a  magazine  for  the  storage  of  so  many 
hundred   weight   of    bales    and   barrels   qf  merchandise, 

(189) 


190  THE   TEN    COMMANDMENTS, 

So  likewise  the  Ten  Commandments  do  not  contain  the 
solution  of  all  moral  problems,  though  in  primitive 
and  rudimentary  form  all  ethics  is  embodied  within 
them.  With  these  brief  and  apodictic  injunctions  we 
must  begin  in  order  to  clearly  form  our  moral  judg- 
ments and  to  decide  our  course  of  conduct.  On  them 
we  build  our  characters.  By  them  we  solve  the  com- 
plex moral  problems  which  from  day  to  day  confront 
us,  growing  out  of  the  involved  motives  and  issues  of 
life,  its  unceasing  conflict  between  duty  and  desire. 
They  remain  still  unimpeaclied,  the  invincible,  invio- 
lable and  everlasting  truth.  It  is  therefore  not  possible 
to  say  otherwise  than  that  they  are  the  voice  of  God 
— the  divine  above  man  speaking  through  the  divine 
within  man. 

Each  one  of  the  Commandments  is  like  a  master- 
piece of  artistic  genius.  In  a  few  bold  lines  it  tells 
a  whole  story  of  human  life  and  pictures  a  lesson  of 
matchless  power.  These  pictures  have  withstood  the 
wear  and  tear  and  the  test  and  criticism  of  ages. 

Look  ujjon  the  first  picture !  It  represents  the  po- 
litical life  of  antiquity.  The  background  shows  the 
massive  masonry  of  Egyptian  pyramids  and  sphinxes, 
the  mighty  battlements  of  great  cities  and  their  splen- 
did temples  and  palaces.  Here  the  lines  between  ruler 
and  ruled  are  firmly  drawn.  Power  is  absolute.  The 
governed,  exist  by  mere  favor.  Thousands  in  burnished 
armor,  riding  in  golden  chariots,  or  trudging  heavily 
through  the  burning  sands,  are  the  slaves  of  war. 
These  are  fettered  in  the  bondage  of  arms  and  doomed 
to  cruel  death.  Besides  these  other  hordes  of  human 
beings  crowd  the  canvas.  They  are  the  common  people. 
Of  these  the  masses  are  the  slaves  of  toil,  bearing 
heavy  burdens.  Under  the  lash  of  cruel  taskmasters 
they   are   driven   harshly   and   relentlessly   to  their  toil. 


OR,   OLD   PICTURES   IN    NEW   FRAMES.  191 

For  them  there  is  neither  rest  nor  mercy.  See  how 
they  stagger  and  fall  in  their  very  tracks,  bleeding 
and  helpless,  yet  hounded  on  to  the  last  vestige  of 
their  strength  until  they  perish  like  beasts  in  their 
own  blood.  A  wall  of  ocean  waves  divides  all  these 
from  a  little  band  of  freed  men,  who  stand  forth  in 
striking  contrast  to  all  the  rest.  Their  burdens  have 
fallen  from  their  backs  ;  the  shackles  are  loosed  from 
their  wrists.  They  stand  erect  with  the  light  of  joy 
in  their  eyes.  Gratitude  is  written  in  every  lineament 
of  their  countenances,  as  with  expectancy  they  look 
up  to  the  sweet-visaged  patriarch  who  stands  in  their 
midst.  His  long,  flowing  beard  rests  on  the  tables  of 
stone  which  he  holds  to  his  heart — his  saintly  coun- 
tenance is  wreathed  in  a  halo  of  light,  his  finger  up- 
raised as  he  speaks,  indicates  that  his  words  are  pro- 
nounced  in   the   name   of  God,   for    he   says :     "'^   ''::J^ 

nn^i;  ri'ino  n^^:£o  ^[t^^  ^ns^cin  niy«  7n^«  (Exodus 

XX.  2),  "I  am  the  Lord  thy  God,  who  brought  thee 
out  of  the  land  of  Egypt  and  out  of  the  house  of 
bondage." 

Around  this  ancient  picture  there  is  a  frame  of  carved 
workmanship.  It  portrays  the  world's  efforts  to  enlarge 
and  expand  the  sublime  precept  of  freedom  which  the 
old  picture  teaches.  Here  we  see,  as  upon  some  tri- 
umphal arch,  the  story  of  the  struggles,  the  wars,  the  re- 
volutions and  reformations,  by  which  men  made  way  for 
liberty  from  Egypt  to  America.  Every  heroic  effort  is 
here  indicated,  from  the  brave  Maccabean  conflict  in 
the  second  century  before,  to  the  American  Revolu- 
tion, eighteen  centuries  after  the  Christian  era  when 
"freedom  was  proclaimed  throughout  the  world  and  to 
all  inhabitants  thereof"  The  nineteenth  century  abol- 
ished slavery  in  Hungary,  Prussia,  Austria,  Scotland; 
in   ^  the     British,    Turkish     and     Spanish    colonies ;    it 


192  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS, 

emancipated  sixty  million  serfs  in  Russia;  it  freed  five 
million  negroes  in  North  America.  In  our  day  it 
manumitted  the  slaves  in  Brazil.  Thus  the  enslave- 
ment of  man  by  his  fellow-men  is  now  forever 
doomed.  Man  in  the  exercise  of  his  high  moral  free- 
dom has  made  himself  at  last  co-worker  with  Israel's 
God,  the  God  of  freedom.  He  has  expanded  that 
beneficent  providence  which  led  our  sires  out  of 
Egypt,  until  all  men,  whatever  be  the  house  of  bond- 
age in  which  they  may  still  be  confined,  are  being  tri- 
umphantly led    out   into   Hberty. 

See  the  second  picture !  It  places  before  us  the 
religious  life  of  the  ancient  world.  Here  stand  restored 
before  our  imagination  the  great  Temples  of  Thebes, 
El  Karnak  and  Luxor,  those  of  Memphis  and  Edfu 
with  their  colonnades  and  their  columned  halls,  writ- 
ten all  over  with  the  sculptured  story  of  man's  strug- 
gles and  triumphs.  Everywhere  is  the  beetle,  whose 
spreading  wings  like  rays  emblem  the  Sun  God,  the 
creative  force  worshiped  by  men.  Here  the  priests  are 
busy  at  the  sacrificial  tasks,  and  in  the  care  of  the 
sacred  ibis  and  cows,  of  the  black  bull  and  the  phoe- 
nix, of  the  lioness  and  the  cat,  while  in  the  long  line 
of  solemn  sphinxes  the  stately  processions  wind  their 
way  to  the  inner  sanctuary  where  the  mystic  rites  are 
solemnized.  All  the  world  in  groves  and  temples  pros- 
trates itself  before  the  brutal  forces  of  the  material 
nature  as  instinct  in  animal  creation  or  emblemized 
in  the  monster  forms  wrought  by  human  hands.  A 
waste  of  desert  land  stretches  beyond,  and  on  the  far- 
ther side  of  the  picture  a  dramatic  scene  is  being  en- 
acted. The  band  of  liberated  Israelites  is  seen  dancing 
in  glee  with  wild  noises  and  mad  orgies  around  the 
golden  calf,  when  lo !  overlooking  the  camp,  appears  the 
law-giver    coming   down    the    mountain    of    Revelation. 


OR,    OLD   PICTURES   IN   NEW   FRAMES.  193 

In  his  righteous  wrath  he  hurls  upon  the  rocks  at  his 
feet  the  tables  of  stone.  Their  shattered  fragments  go 
ringing  down  the  mountain  side  carrying  the  thun- 
drous    echo   of  his    words: 

"Ye  shall  not  have  any  God  before  me.  Ye  shall 
not  make  any  graven  images  nor  any  likeness  of 
created  things  to  bow  down  and  serve  them,  for  I, 
God  your  Lord,  am  a  jealous  God  visiting  the  iniqui- 
ties of  the  parents  upon  the  children  to  the  third  and 
fourth  generations  of  them  that  hate  me,  and  showing 
mercy  to  the  thousands  of  them  that  love  me  and 
keep  my  commandments." 

There  is  an  ancient  rabbinic  legend  which  says  that 
when  Moses  thus  broke  into  fragments  the  tables  of 
stone,  the  letters  that  had  been  graven  upon  them 
were  not  destroyed  but  leaped,  as  it  were,  embodied  in 
flame  from  their  place  and  burned  visibly  and  legibly 
in  the  sight  of  the  people.  There  is  a  profound  sig- 
nificance in  this  legend.  It  refers  to  the  sublime  fact 
that  there  a  truth  was  blazoned  forth  to  the  world 
that  has  continued  to  burn  in  human  hearts  with  un- 
abated brilliancy.  That  truth  is  this,  the  false  gods 
and  the  false  doctrines  proclaimed  as  religion,  however 
powerfully  they  may  be  upheld,  cannot  last.  Under  the 
divine  light  of  reason  which  burns  perpetually,  their 
falseness  will  at  last  be  exposed. 

The  frame  of  this  old  picture  is  thus  illuminated  with 
the  age-long  record  of  the  struggle  of  the  human  soul 
against  the  terrors  of  blinding  passions ;  against  the 
dread  of  dark  mystery  and  the  fears  of  superstitious 
ignorance.  These  created  the  false  gods  before  which 
men  cringed  in  abject  debasement.  Here  is  shown  the 
triumph  of  light  and  intellect,  the  conquest  of  hope  and 
devout  aspiration.  Little  by  little  man  grows  into  the 
conscious   dignity  of  his   divine  likeness  ^and'  dares   to 


194  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS, 

stand  erect.  Here  is  chronicled  the  change  from  the 
old  motives  of  fear  to  the  new  impulses  of  love  in  re- 
ligion. The  long  night  of  error  is  past  in  which  man 
pursued  the  will-o'-the-wisp  of  those  false  philosophies, 
that  enticed  him  into  fatal  marshes  of  corruption.  The 
day  has  come  and  in  the  full  sunlight  of  reason  he  sees 
the  sublime  heights  of  idealism  and  hears  from  the 
summit  the  voice  which  no  longer  terrifies  the  soul  by 
emphasizing  the  threat  "visiting  the  iniquities  of  the 
parents  upon  the  children  unto  the  third  and  fourth 
generations,"  but  which  rightly  heard,  calls  and  calls 
again  in  sweet  and  solemn  appeal,  "showing  mercy  to 
the  thousands  of  those  that  love  me  and  keep  my 
commandments. " 

The  third  picture  is  one  full  of  horrors  that  the  eye 
refuses  to  look  upon.  In  quick  succession  we  see  the 
mad  practices  of  ancient  worship.  Rivers  of  blood  flow 
from  the  altars  on  which  the  smoking  hecatombs  of 
sacrifice  are  offered  to  appease  the  offended  deities. 
Behold !  children  are  led  through  the  fire  to  Moloch. 
Murder  is  done  in  religion's  name.  Every  law  of  de- 
cency and  morality  is  outraged.  In  drunken  baccha- 
nalian rites,  men,  women  and  children  wildly  com- 
mingle, marching  and  dancing  to  the  tune  of  music 
that  intoxicates  every  sense  and  frenzies  the  soul. 
Thus  did  men  pattern  after  their  gods  of  old.  Ps.  ex  v., 
8:  "Like  them  are  those  that  make  them."  They  un- 
bridled every  passion,  and  indulged  every  vice  when 
they  drew  near  to  their  gods. 

Round  about  this  picture,  as  if  to  set  the  frame  of 
silence  about  its  debasing  tumults,  are  solemn  inscrip- 
tions. Above  are  the  words  of  the  third  commandment, 
"Thou  shalt  not  take  the  name  of  God  for  vanity." 
Beneath  are  the  ringing  sentences  of  the  prophet: 
Isaiah  i.,  13-17,  "Bring  no  more  vain  oblations ;  incense 


OR,   OLD   PICTURES   IN   NEW   FRAMES.  195 

is  an  abomination  to  me,  the  new  moons  and  the  Sab- 
baths, your  appointed  feasts  my  soul  hateth ;  they  are  a 
trouble  to  me;  I  am  weary  to  hear  them.  And  when 
you  spread  forth  your  hands  I  will  hide  mine  eyes 
from  you ;  yea,  when  ye  make  many  prayers  I  will  not 
hear ;  your  hands  are  full  of  blood.  Wash  you,  make 
you  clean,  put  away  the  evils  of  your  doings  from  mine 
eyes;  cease  to  do  evil;  learn  to  do  well;  seek  justice; 
relieve  the  oppressed,  judge  the  fatherless  and  plead  for 
the  widow."  On  either  side  are  these  master  words  of 
the  sweet  Psalmist,  Ps.  xxiv :  ' '  Who  shall  ascend  the 
mount  of  the  Lord  and  who  shall  stand  in  his  Holyl 
place?  He  that  hath  clean  hands  and  a  pure  heart. 
Who  hath  not  lifted  up  his  soul  unto  vanity,  nor  sworni 
deceitfully.  He  shall  receive  the  blessing  from  the  Lord 
and  righteousness   from   the  God   of  his   salvation." 

The  fourth  picture  presents  the  industrial  life  of  the 
ancient  world.  Kings  and  princes  are  luxuriating  in 
palaces  for  whose  splendor  we  know  no  name  more 
dazzling  and  brilliant  than  "Oriental."  All  other  hu- 
man beings  are  spurned  as  of  lower  caste.  Of  these 
the  lowest  is  that  of  the  laborer.  Toil  is  unremun- 
erated  by  wages  and  has  no  rights  that  are  respected. 
War,  not  work,  is  deemed  the  legitimate  and  honored 
occupation  of  men.  To  labor  is  a  dishonor  and  a 
curse.  Out  over  the  hordes  of  fighting  and  slaving 
masses  rings  the  strange  and  wondrous  charge :  "Six 
days  shalt  thou  labor  and  do  all  thy  work,  but  the 
seventh  day  is  a  Sabbath,  consecrated  unto  the  Lord 
thy  God." 

The  frame  of  this  picture  is  dinged,  bruised  and 
broken  in  places.  Its  inscriptions  tell  of  the  spread  of 
the  Sabbath  idea  from  the  little  land  of  Judea  among 
all  the  civilized  nations  of  the  globe.  They  tell  how 
through  it  labor  was  dignified  and  the    laborer  stead- 


196  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS, 

ily  rose  until  in  these  days  as  never  before  he  is 
free  and  honored,  achieving  the  steady  triumphs  of  his 
rights.  The  gospel  of  work  as  a  divine  injunction  is 
known  and  heeded  in  the  modern  world.  But  alas, 
the  gospel  of  rest,  no  less  divine,  is  much  dishonored, 
and  most,  alas,  in  Israel.  Sal^bath  sanctity,  the  choicest 
gem  which  Judaism  set  in  the  crown  of  religions,  is 
bedimmed  and  grown  lusterless.  The  stress  of  the 
modern  life  has  sadly  invaded  the  serenity  and  joyous 
dignity  of  our  Sabbath.  Greed,  materialism  and  soph- 
istry are  doing  their  best  to  utterly  destroy  it.  Even 
those  who  are  the  avowed  champions  of  right  are  often 
indeed  in  reality  the  worst  foes  of  the  Sabbath.  Insist- 
ing upon  the  letter  of  its  fulfilment  by  blue-laws  and 
intolerant  judgments  they  are  utterly  debasing  its  true 
spirit.  Hapless  Jews  and  Baptists  are  indicted  in  our 
courts  and  fined  for  working  on  Sunday.  Their  plea, 
that  they  keep  the  Seventh  Day  Sabbath,  proves  of  no 
avail.  The  old  blue-laws  must  be  enforced  and  the 
fine  collected.  Such  instances  are  legion.  The  broad 
humanitarianism  which  cares  for  man  and  beast  and 
which  gives  to  the  commandment  its  divine  force  is 
totally  abrogated  by  this  inhumanity  of  man.  Thus 
is  the  frame  marred  and  broken.  It  awaits  our 
fashioning  hand  to  renew  and  embellish;  to  restore 
and  adorn   it  as   never  before. 

The  fifth  picture  is  one  of  domestic  life.  It  portrays 
in  contrast  two  distinct  and  totally  opposite  ideals  of 
the  home  and  its  filial  and  paternal  relations.  In  the 
one  the  father  is  the  despot  who  owns  wife  and  chil- 
dren, who  rules  their  destinies  by  his  absolute  will, 
who  may  take  their  very  lives  and  be  accountable  to 
none. 

In  the  other  the  reverent  patriarch  lays  his  hand  in 
blessing  upon  the  child  as  he  ardently  admonishes  him 


OR,  ;^ OLD   PICTURES   IN'nEW' FRAMES.  19? 

in  God's  name:  -jDS  riKT  ^n^  ns  TDD  "Honor  thy 
father  and  thy  mother,  that  thy  days  may  be  long  in 
the  land  which  the  Lord  thy  God  giveth  thee." 

No  frame  is  more  beautiful  than  that  in  which  this 
picture  is  set.  The  domestic  ideal  as  it  has  been  fos- 
tered and  developed  in  Israel  yields  to  none  other. 
The  family  is  the  safeguard  of  church  and  state,  of  so- 
ciety and  all  its  institutions.  No  thought  has  been 
more  deepened  and  broadened  than  this  of  home  cul- 
ture. To-day  the  world  sits  at  the  feet  of  its  teachers 
to  learn  more  eagerly  than  ever  before,  the  lessons  of 
home-making  and  character  building.  Parents  are  find- 
ing out  everywhere  that  honor  cannot  be  gained  by 
commanding,  by  censuring,  by  whipping,  scolding  or 
even  by  merely  loving  and  pampering  their  children- 
Honor  must  be  merited  to  be  won.  It  must  be  held 
by  worth  as  well  as  by  years  of  experience,  by  wisdom 
rather  than  by  ties  of  blood.  Only  such  honor  given 
at  home  as  it  is  given  abroad,  will  endure  through  trial 
and  sorrow  and  live  through  loving  service  for  life  and 
last  eternally  beyond  the  grave. 

The  fifth,  sixth,  seventh,  eighth,  ninth  and  tenth  com- 
mandments together  suggest  a  picture  of  the  crudest 
and  most  primitive  civilization,  subject  to  every  dis- 
order. Life  and  health,  home  and  virtue,  character  and 
possessions  are  not  safe  until  the  stern  mandate  of  the 
everlasting  ought  of  Duty  proclaims  restraint  in  the  sol- 
emn "Thou  shalt  not!"  About  this  old  picture  the 
frame  is  of  the  most  substantial  workmanship  and 
finished  in  the  most  skilful  and  artistic  manner.  It 
shows  that  the  obverse  of  each  one  of  these  commands 
is  implied  and  by  the  modern  world  rigorously  de- 
manded and  enforced.  "Thou  shalt  not  kill"  is  funda- 
mental, but  civilization  adds  to  the  negative  its  positive, 
and  asks  also  that  thou  shalt  sustain  and  support  life, 


198  THK   TEN   COMMANt)MENTa, 

nurse  the  sick,  guard  the  orphaned  and  the  suffering 
and  look  after  the  welfare  of  servants  and  employees. 
The  humane  care  of  life  has  risen  to  a  passion  in  our 
days.  Our  greatest  hero  is  the  philanthropist — he  who 
discovers  some  mode  of  relieving  pain,  or  who  founds 
some  hospital  or  institution  to  care  for  the  homeless, 
the  helpless,  the  dependent  or  delinquent,  the  outworn 
and  outcast  of  mankind. 

"Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thj^self "  is  the  su- 
preme fulfilment  of  the  law.  Because  thou  art  created 
in  the  divine  image  thou  shalt  not  defile  that  image  by 
any  unchastity.  This  sets  the  law  of  personal  purity  as 
the  supreme  test  of  a  godly  character.  "Thou  shalt  not 
commit  adultery";  and  the  rabbinical  dictum  "Let  the 
honor  of  thy  neighbor  be  as  sacred  to  thee  as  thine 
own,"  sets  the  sanctity  of  the  home  as  the  keystone  of 
the  arch  of  civilization. 

"Thou  shalt  not  steal"  requires  that  thou  shalt 
guard  another's  rights  and  property.  It  is  still  a  very 
low  scale  of  society  to  which  such  a  command  is  nec- 
essary. We  call  it  at  best  semi-barbaric.  Yet  in  our 
very  days  a  leading  maxim  of  the  commercial  world 
is  "Competition  is  the  life  of  trade."  This  is  posi- 
tively a  false  doctrine.  In  the  long  run  competition 
kills.  To  work  against,  instead  of  with  each  other  is  a 
selfish,  narrow  and  deadening  policy.  Only  by  work- 
ing together  do  men  reach  the  highest  possibilities 
in  the  development  of  their  country  and  its  resources, 
and  of  their  national,  state,  municipal  or  individual 
powers.  By  holding  up  each  others  hands  all  pro- 
gress together  to  the  truer  and  larger  prosperity. 
Co-operation  is  coming  by  slow  but  sure  degrees,  in 
the  highest   civilization,   to    supplant   competition. 

"  Thou  shalt  not  bear  false  witness  against  thy  neigh- 
bor."    This  imphes  on  the  contrary  the  noblest  brother- 


OR,   OLD     PICTURES   IN    NFW   FRAMES.  169 

hood  among  men.  ^^Nohlesse  ohlige,^^  "the  strong  must 
nobly  protect  the  weak."  To  advance  the  highest  in- 
terests of  the  human  family,  lays  the  charge  upon  each 
one  of  us  not  to  slander  and  abase,  but  to  encourage 
and  ennoble  our  fellow  beings. 

"  Thou  shalt  not  covet,"  sinks  the  plummet  to  the 
depths  of  all  moral  philosophy,  and  makes  the  motive 
the  last  and  highest  guage  and  standard  of  all  con- 
duct. 

These  old  pictures  from  the  texts  of  our  Thorah  I  give 
you  to-day  framed  in  the  larger  interpretation  of  the 
deep  experience  and  sage  reflection  of  ages  of  human 
history.  Hang  them  on  the  walls  of  your  memory. 
Look  up  to  them  day  by  day.  Study  them  with  the 
eyes  of  the  mind  and  let  the  soul  be  strengthened  and 
exalted  by  them. 

Our  sages  said  of  Moses,  he  was  commanded  "and 
Moses  went  up  to  God," — i.  e.,  he  looked  aloft  unto  the 
ideal.  "And  Moses  descended  to  the  people," — i.  c,  he 
brought  the  ideal  down  to  the  real  needs  of  their  daily 
life.  Therefore,  he  gave  them  concrete  laws  and  prac- 
tical precepts  for  the  guidance  of  their  conduct.  So  let 
us  each  day  look  up  to  these  old  pictures  in  their  new 
frames,  the  masterpieces  of  religious  workmanship,  thus 
to  strengthen  our  wills  and  renew  our  moral  force  so 
that  when  we  come  down  to  the  commonplace  applica- 
tion of  principle  in  the  affairs  of  every  day,  our  re- 
ligion may  not  be  a  vague  and  distant  abstraction,  but 
a  real  and  present  power  for  good  and  for  truth.  In 
this  wise  we  may  indeed  make  it  true  to  say :  "Let 
a  man  keep  the  Ten  Commandments  and  he  will  fulfil 
all  the  requirements  of  religion." 


GENIUS   IN   HISTORY  AND   THE   HIS- 
TORY OF   GENIUS. 


A     LECTURE     DELIVERED    IN    ST.    LOUIS,     BY    ISAAC    M.    WISE. 


The  earth  on  which  we  live  is  populated  this  mo- 
ment by  nearly  fifteen  millions  of  human  beings,  so 
that  our  country  contains  but  the  twenty-eighth  patt 
of  the  grand  total  of  the  human  family,  and  it  would 
take  twenty-eight  nations  in  numbers  equal  to  the 
American  to  comprise  mankind.  Every  one  of  those 
fourteen  hundred  millions  of  human  beings,  infants  and 
idiots  excepted,  has  a  will  of  his  or  her  own  and  an 
amount  of  energy  to  exert  it.  Every  man's  will  is, 
in  the  first  place,  egotistical,  because  it  is  governed  by 
the  instincts  of  self-preservation.  At  a  first  glance  it 
looks  as  though  there  were  as  many  repelling  and  re- 
pulsive forces  in  society  as  there  are  individuals.  And 
3^et  we  behave  pretty  well.  Neighbors  live  in  peace. 
Nations  live  in  peace.  Disputes,  quarrels,  fights,  insur- 
rections and  wars  are  the  exceptions,  occasional  dis- 
orders, skin  diseases  on  the  social  organism ;  and  peace 
is  its  natural  state.  The  idea  that  life  is  synony- 
mous with  combat,  a  war  of  each  against  all,  and  all 
against  each,  is  certainly  absurd.  It  is  not  true  even 
among  cannibals,  inasmuch  as  they  do  not  consume  one 
another.  As  a  general  rule  every  man  seeks  peace,  and 
the  ruffians  are  mere  exceptions. 

(200) 


kisfoRY   OP  GENtUS.  201 

This  certainly  proves  that  there  must  be  in  hu- 
man nature  a  motive  power  to  counteract  and  con- 
trol his  egotism,  and  this  is  his  moral  conscience. 
It  is  by  the  force  that  moral  conscience  exercises  up- 
on the  will,  that  a  social  organism  is  possible,  that 
we  live  together  in  peace.  Egotism  is  the  animal  as- 
pect of  life,  and  moral  conscience  is  its  human  aspect. 
The  one  is  the  manifestation  of  the  will  under  the 
influence  of  the  instinct  of  self-preservation,  the  other 
is  the  manifestation  of  the  same  will  under  the  in- 
fluence of  the  human  instinct  of  self-elevation.  It  is 
the  laudable  desire  of  being  or  becoming  better  than 
one  is  or  was  before;  and  better  in  this  case  means 
more  human  and  less  brutal.  Moral  conscience  is  the 
sentiment  that  the  right  and  good  is  right  and  good, 
and  ought  to  be  done;  and  that  the  wrong  and  evil 
is  wrong  and  evil,  and  ought  to  be  shunufed.  This 
fundamental  sentiment  is  common  to  all  men.  No 
sane  man  ever  did  that  which  he  knew  to  be  wicked 
for  the  simple  purpose  of  wickedness,  nor  did  he 
shun  that  which  he  knew  to  be  good  in  order  to  be 
wicked  in  his  own  estimation.  The  most  wicked  man 
seeks  an  excuse  for  his  wickedness  and  cannot  help 
respecting  goodness.  Also  those  persons  who  define 
conscience  as  an  acquired  attribute  must  admit  that 
it  could  not  be  developed  in  a  man  if  it  were  not 
an  innate  quality  or  capacity  of  his  nature.  Only 
that  which  is  in  man  can  be  developed  and  perfected, 
nothing  can  be  imposed  on  the  race  to  become  lasting 
and  general.  Mr.  Charles  Darwin  himself,  I  think, 
cannot  deny   this   truism  of  education. 

Why,  then,  is  moral  conscience  so  elastic  and  vari- 
able? Why  does  it  change  so  essentially  among  na- 
tions and  individuals,  under  difl'erent  climates  and 
various   outer  influences?     Why   has    conscience   a   his- 


202 


GENIUS   IN  HISTORY 


tory,  a  progressive  development  from  lower  to  higher 
states?  There  is  certainly  a  considerable  difference 
between  the  consciences  of  the  Russian  peasant  and 
the  British  philanthropist,  the  subject  of  the  King  of 
Siam  and  the  American  citizen,  Draco  and  George 
Washington,  the  Roman  patrician  lady  and  Mrs.  Lu- 
cretia  Mott;  whence  that  difference,  if  all  men  are 
born  equal  ? 

This  certainly  proves  that  there  must  be  in  man's 
nature  a  motive  power  to  control  both  his  egotism 
and  his  conscience,  to  balance,  equipoise  and  direct 
both  of  them ;  and  this  motive  power  is  reason.  Rea- 
son defines  and  advises,  selects  and  rejects,  recom- 
mends and  reproves  ;  reason  decides  for  the  conscience 
what  to  call  right  and  what  to  call  wrong.  Therefore, 
where  the  reason  is  deficient,  the  conscience  is  mis- 
guided by  its  definitions  and  calls  that  right  which 
the  more  intelligent  man  would  call  wrong,  and  so 
vice  versa.  The  conscience  of  the  barbarian  is  as  keen 
and  forcible  as  that  of  a  modern  philanthropist,  only 
the  intelligence  of  the  former  is  too  limited,  and  there- 
fore his  conceptions  of  right  and  wrong  are  narrow 
and  incorrect.  Moral  conscience  among  the  generality 
of  men,  at  all  times  and  places,  stands  in  fair  pro- 
portion to  the  prevailing  intelligence  and  enlighten- 
ment. The  progress  of  the  former  depends  on  the 
growth  of  the  latter.  You  might  call  this  a  Jewish 
idea,  for  it  is  thoroughly  biblical  and  thoroughly  rab- 
binical; but  call  it  anything  you  please,  it  is,  never- 
theless, based  upon  facts,  and  has  been  acknowledged 
as  a  demonstrable  truth  by  many  a  reasoner  besides 
Thomas  Carlyle.  Wherever  reason  is  clogged  the  con- 
science is  dim.  Viciousness  is  the  offspring  of  igno-  - 
ranee;  ignorance  is  the  only  original  sin  and  stupidity 
is  universal   depravity,  I  think. 


ANt)   THE'^HTSTORY   Ot  GENItJS.  203 

But  here  we  are  once  more  confronted  by  an  en- 
igmatical problem.  Why  are  not  all  nations  equally 
intelligent?  Why  are  not  all  men  equally  wise?  Na- 
ture or  nature's  God  has  given  a  fair  proportion  of 
latent  and  potential  intellect  to  every  individual,  to 
every  nation.  The  objects  of  nature  are  manifold  and 
everywhere  challenge  the  intellect  to  reflection  and  to 
comparison,  to  reason  and  to  judge.  Wherever  man 
has  dwelt,  there  was  his  school,  going  with  him  from 
the  cradle  to  the  grave ;  why  are  not  all  nations  equally 
wise  if  they  are  equally  old?  If  human  intelligence  is 
the  sum  and  substance  of  sensual  impressions  from 
sensuous  objects,  as  the  realists  maintain,  and  both  the 
senses  and  the  natural  objects  have  not  changed  with- 
in historical  times,  why  are  not  all  nations  equally 
wise?  It  is  vain  to  maintain  that  some  of  them  pos- 
sessed more  freedom,  better  means  to  preserve  and  to 
promulgate  experience  and  information,  for  this  only 
pushes  the  question  one  degree  back,  viz.,  why  were 
some  intelligent  enough  to  acquire  or  achieve  those 
advantages,  while  others  were  too  ignorant  for  such 
achievements?  It  is  vain  to  speak  also  of  elimatical 
obstacles,  we  know  that  Carthage,  Alexandria,  Athens, 
Jerusalem,  Babylon  and  Persepolis  flourished  under 
the  burning  heat  of  the  tropical  sun,  and  we  are  told 
again  and  anon  that  all  wisdom  anciently  came  from 
India,  Ethiopia  and  Egypt;  when  we  know  that  Den- 
mark, Sweden  and  Norway  have  given  some  of  the 
finest  apostles  to  science  and  art.  Evidently  man's 
intelligence  depends  neither  on  the  nature  of  the  soil 
nor  on  the  position  of  the  sun  ;  why,  then,  are  not  all 
nations  equally  wise?  If  it  is  all  systematical,  me- 
chanical action  of  the  natural  objects  upon  the  senses, 
ganglia,  nerves  and  brain,  whence  this  marked  differ- 
ence in   the  intelliorence   of  nations? 


^04  GENiUS   IN   HISTORY 

This  proves  there  is  a  reason  of  reason,  a  lower  and 
a  higher  kind  of  reason,  a  sensuous  and  a  supersensuous 
intelligence.  The  sensuous  intelligence  is  within  every 
sane  man's  reach,  can  be,  was  and  is  grasped  and 
utilized  by  all  nations  whose  individuals  are  not  de- 
teriorated by  moral  corruption.  The  supersensuous 
intelligence  must  be  taught  and  promulgated,  because 
it  is  not  in  the  objects  of  nature ;  hence  it  must  be 
either  invented  by  man  or  revealed  to  man  by  or  to 
particular  individuals,  who  first  and  originally  con- 
ceived such  supersensuous  truisms  and  promulgated 
them  among  others.  The  mind  which  originally  conceives 
supersensuous  truisms,  together  with  the  impulse  to  promul- 
gate them,  is  called  a  genius.  And  so  we  have  arrived 
before  genius.  So  genius  governs  sensuous  reason, 
reason  governs  conscience,  conscience  governs  egotism 
with  its  passions  and  affections,  and  each  of  them 
influences   the   will   with   more   or   less   efhcacy. 

The  characteristics  of  genius  are  (1)  the  original 
conception  of  supersensuous  truisms,  and  (2)  the  im- 
pulse or  inner  necessity,  to  promulgate  them.  This 
impulse  is  common  to  a  large  number  of  communi- 
cative and  talkative  persons.  Quite  a  number  of  per- 
sons speak  much  and  say  little,  write  volumes  with- 
out inventing  or  discovering  anything.  There  are 
plenty  of  books  without  one  original  idea  and  vol- 
umes without  a  supersensuous  thought.  Conversations 
quite  animated  and  fluent  are  conducted  for  hours, 
or  even  days  and  weeks,  without  any  higher  idea,  so 
that  some  fine  conversationalists  command  no  more 
than  five  hundred  words  of  their  respective  language. 
Hence  the  impulse  and  readiness  to  promulgate  many 
words,  however  beautiful  and  ingenious  they  may 
sound,  is  no  criterion  of  genius.  And  yet  genius 
never  appears  without  this   impulse.     It   must   commu- 


AND   THE   HISTORY   OF   GENIUS.  205 

nicate  its  visions  or  conceptions  irrespective  of  any 
benetit  that  might  be  derived  from  its  revelations 
for  itself  or  others,  irrespective  also  of  any  harm  or 
injury  which  might  accrue  from  them.  It  must  an- 
nounce its  revelations  in  words  spoken  or  written,  in 
song  or  music,  in  picture  or  statuary,  in  architectural 
grandeur  or  mechanical  ingenuity,  in  the  government 
of  a  nation  or  propelling  an  association  onward  to 
higher  aims,  in  organizing  masses  or  commanding 
armies  upon  the  field  of  battle.  It  must,  and  does, 
manifest  itself  according  to  the  influence  of  circum- 
stances  and   the   opportunities  offered. 

This  idea  is  most  strikingly  illustrated  in  the  Bible, 
first  by  Moses  at  the  burning  bush.  He  had  conceived 
the  sublime  idea  of  redeeming  his  people  from  bond- 
age, giving  them  nationality,  organization,  liberty,  law 
and  religion,  and  making  of  them  God's  chosen  mes- 
sengers to  weeping  and  down-trodden  humanity  of  all 
ages  and  zones.  He  felt  the  necessity  of  doing  all 
that;  he  knew  it  was  his  duty  to  do  it;  and  yet  he 
wavered,  for  the  task  was  too  great,  the  enterprise  too 
gigantic,  the  work  itself  too  enormous.  He  hid  his  face, 
for  he  was  afraid  to  look  the  fact  into  the  face.  He 
struggled,  he  wrestled,  he  excused  himself  with  this 
and  that.  But  in  vain;  he  must.  God's  anger  was 
enkindled  against  him,  which  is  to  say,  against  his  will 
he  felt  himself  compelled  to  embrace  the  great  and 
sublime  cause.     Genius  must.  It  has  no  will  of  its  own. 

Elijah,  in  the  fiery  wagon  drawn  by  steeds  of  fire, 
soaring  heavenward,  is  the  most  accomplished  presenta- 
tion of  lofty  genius,  throwing  in  the  shade  all  Grecian 
conceptions  of  fantasy.  Poor,  enthusiastic,  inspired  Elijah, 
who  conjured  the  fire  from  heaven  down  upon  Mt. 
Carmel  and  inspired  the  tens  of  thousands  to  exclaim, 
"Jehovah  is  Elohim!  "  flees  to  the  wilderness  for  his  life  ; 


206  GENIUS    IN    HISTORY 

half-starved,  worn-out  and  disappointed,  he  stands  upon 
the  barren  rock  and  complains  bitterly  and  beseeches 
vehemently,  Let  me  alone,  let  me  perish,  let  me  rest 
in  peace.  No !  says  the  Almighty  voice,  go  and  anoint 
kings  and  prophets,  go  and  work.  No  rest  and  no  will 
of  his  own  for  genius.  It  must.  "  The  wise  men  have 
no  rest  in  either  this  or  the  next  world,"  it  is  main- 
tained  in   the  Talmud. 

The  same  was  the  case  with  the  Prophet  Jonah,  who 
attempted  to  escape  to  Tarshish  from  before  the  Lord. 
He  refused  with  all  his  might  to  be  a  jjrophet  of  misery 
and  destruction.  But  the  sea  stormed  under  him,  the 
very  deep  rebelled  against  him,  the  monsters  of  the 
bottom  rose  up  to  compel  him,  and  he  was  forced  to 
go  to  Nineveh  and  perform  the  task  of  his  genius. 
Genius  must,  it  has  no  will. 

Bitterly  does  the  hapless  prophet  Jeremiah  bemoan 
his  lot,  the  dire  necessity  of  being  the  prophet  of  woe 
to  his  people  and  its  beautiful  capital  and  temple.  He 
was  insulted,  smitten,  incarcerated  and  driven  to  the 
gates  of  death.  He  cried  vehemently,  why  must  just  I 
be  the  messenger  of  wTath,  and  resolved  to  speak  no 
more,  to  speak  no  longer.  But  it  burnt  like  fire  in  his 
bones,  go  he  must,  speak  he  must,  genius  has  no  will. 

Thousands  of  illustrations  might  be  taken  from  his- 
tory to  the  same  efiect.  Not  he  is  the  great  poet  who 
writes  a  poem  because  he  likes  so  to  do ;  he  is,  whose 
heart  bleeds  and  whose  eyes  weep  over  the  lines  which 
he  pens  on  account  of  that  mysterious  inner  impulse, 
that  irresistible  necessity  which  governs  him  despot- 
ically. This  is  true  with  the  composer  and  every  other 
genius.  Some  of  us  may,  at  some  time  or  another, 
have  experienced  that  pressure,  that  nameless  force, 
that  indescril)able  yearning  and  longing  to  do,  say  or 
write  this  or  that  so  and  so  and  you  certainly  feel  the 


AND   THE   HISTORY  OF   GENIUS.  207 

idea,  which  I  lack  the  adequate  words  to  express. 
However,  if  it  is  permitted  to  call  the  prophets  of  Is- 
rael geniuses,  we  must  certainly  be  permitted  to  rank 
them  among  the  highest  of  that  kind ;  hence  their 
characteristics  are  characteristic  of  genius.  With  them, 
there  can  be  no  doubt,  one  of  the  characteristics  is  that 
they  spoke  and  acted  by  an  irresistible  impulse,  con- 
trary to  their  own  will  and  happiness ;  hence  this  im- 
pulse must  be  characteristic  of  genius  at  least  in  its 
loftiest  state. 

Let  us  pause  here  a  moment,  ladies  and  gentle- 
men. I  have  said  that  the  production  of  genius 
must  be  either  invention  or  revelation.  If  invention 
it  be,  it  is  of  man,  if  revelation  it  be,  it  is  of 
the  universal  and  supreme  reason,  it  is  of  God. 
What  compels  the  genius  to  act,  speak,  write  or  do 
against  his  own  will  and  happiness?  It  is  certainly 
not  a  power  within  him,  for  he  protests  and  struggles 
against  it,  it  is  not  by  his  will,  it  is  against  his  will 
and  overrules  it.  It  must  be  an  impulse  from  without, 
which  acts  upon  him  and  compels  him  to  act,  speak, 
write  or  do  against  his  will  and  happiness.  The  im- 
mediate cause  of  that  irresistible  impulse  is  the  super- 
sensuous  idea  which,  as  we  say,  rises  in  the  mind  of 
the  genius ;  hence  the  idea  itself  must  be  from  with- 
out, it  is  not  invented,  it  is  revealed,  and  therefore 
irresistible.  The  individual  mind,  we  might  maintain, 
receives  communications  from  the  universal  spirit  on 
the  strength  of  this  impulse ;  but  we  are  not  done  yet 
with  our  definition  of  genius. 

The  main  characteristic  of  genius  is  the  conception 
of  supersensuous  truisms.  We  say,  an  idea  rose  in 
my  mind,  or  an  idea  struck  me,  I  had  an  original 
idea,  without  labored  reflection  or  sagacious  combina- 
tion, and  have  no  name  for  this  phenomenon  in  our 


208  GENIUS   IN   HISTORY 

text-books  of  psychology,  nor  are  we  able  to  account 
for  it.  Goethe  and  Mozart  were  asked  how  those 
magnificent,  grand  and  beautiful  supersensuous  truisms 
rose  in  their  minds,  and  they  could  not  tell.  Nor 
could  ever  any  man  of  genius  tell  how  those  sublime 
conceptions  rose  from  the  dark  background  of  the 
unconscious  to  the  luminous  region  of  consciousness. 
They  api^ear  in  the  mind  as  complete  and  finished 
jnctures,  symmetrical  in  their  proportions,  finished  in 
their  delineations,  harmonious  in  their  colors  or 
sounds,  melodious  and  self-evident  in  their  combina- 
tions, complete  and  finished  as  was  Minerva  when 
she  leaped  forth  from  the  brain  of  Zeus.  Genius  is 
infinitely  more  than  talent.  Talent  studies,  labors  and 
combines.  So  are  its  productions  studied  and  labored 
combinations,  in  which  the  joints  and  crevices  are 
visible.  Genius  creates  inseparable  and  indivisible 
units.  Talent  imitates,  improves  and  groups  together 
well-known  parts  to  a  novel  oneness,  deals  in  sensu- 
ous ideas  and  conceptions,  and  can  only  imitate  na- 
ture to  a  certain  extent,  as  Goethe  said:  "Die  Kunft 
soil  nie  die  Natur  erreichen,"  "art  falls  short  of  na- 
ture." Genius  imitates  not  and  constructs  not;  like 
the  silk  worm,  it  brings  forth  the  softest  tissues  from 
its  own  body.  Its  productions  are  not  of  the  sensu- 
ous order,  hence  there  can  be  no  imitations ;  they 
must  be,  and  are,  free  creations.  Talent  may  be  in- 
herited, acquired  and  lost ;  and  genius  is  a  commis- 
sion from  on  high.  Mysteriously  Providence  appoints 
its  messengers,  and  bids  them  descend  to  us  mortals 
with  the  messages  of  love  and  bliss,  which  the 
Father   sends  to   His   children. 

And  so  it  is  genius  which  brings  to  us  the  super- 
sensuous  conceptions,  the  beautiful  and  the  sublime, 
the  good  and  the  true,  the   aesthetical   and  ethical  prin- 


AND    THE    HISTORY  OF   GJ^NIUS.  209 

ciples  and  the  moral  laws,  the  government  of  nations 
and  the  religion  of  the  human  family.  Philosophy  in 
its  originality  and  science  in  its  logical  systems,  as 
well  as  the  supersensuousness  in  any  branch  of  art, 
are  offsprings  of  genius,  and  genius  is  heaven-born, 
and  genius  is  heaven-gifted,  and  genius  opens  the  cur- 
tains of  heaven,  to  let  us  humble  pilgrims  catch  a 
glance  of  the  supersensuous,  the  good  and  the  true,  the 
beautiful  and  the  sublime.  Hence  it  is  genius  which 
makes  history,  which  shapes  history  to  a  regular  pro- 
gression from  lower  to  higher  conditions,  which  adjusts 
the  follies  and  crimes  of  egotism,  the  fanaticism  of 
conscience,  the  devices  of  sensuous  reason,  all  the 
wickedness,  all  the  illogical  doings  of  man,  to  one 
grand  piece  of  logical  succession  and  progression,  one 
history  of  mankind  from  Adam  to  our  day,  including 
all  and  excluding  none.  So  we  can  point  out  the 
place  and  position  of  genius  in  history.  It  makes  and 
adjusts  history  according  to  the  will  of  Providence, 
out  of  the  egotism,  follies,  crimes,  wars,  conquests,  in- 
surrections, despotisms,  oppressions,  persecutions,  fanati- 
cism, avarice  and  gross  selfishness,  brutal  passions  and 
horrible  cruelties  of  sensual  man,  governed  by  sensu- 
ous reason.  The  overruling  spirit  of  history  is  actual- 
ized in  the  spirit  of  man ;  the  logos  of  history 
operates  through  the  geniuses  in  which  it  becomes  de- 
cision, volition  and  action.  That  is  the  place  of  gen- 
ius in   history. 

PerQiit  me,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  to  correct  what  I 
consider  a  mistake  made  by  quite  a  number  of  prom- 
inent authors ;  also  by  Edward  von  Hartmann.  It  has 
been  advanced  that  history  is  made  also  by  senseless 
and  apparently  aimless  and  groundless  commotions 
among  large  masses  of  people,  who  are  agitated  by  in- 
visible and   often    insensible   agencies,    perform    useless 


210  GENIUS   IN    HISTORY 

and  destructive  tasks,  run  wildly  and  violently,  and 
know  not  whither  or  wherefore.  Still  such  indefina- 
ble, general  commotions  accomplish  in  the  end  some 
great  historical  purpose.  This,  they  say,  shows  a 
visible  interference  of  the  logos  or  genius  of  history, 
of  active  Providence,  in  the  affairs  of  man,  and  that 
is  one  of  its  methods  to  make,  shape  and  adjust  his- 
tory. As  illustrations  of  this  idea  they  point  to  the 
Crusades   and   similar   events  in  history. 

I  protest  loudly  against  this  horrible  idea  that  by  the 
will  of  Providence  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands 
must  be  slaughtered  and  trampled  under  the  feet  of  un- 
reasoning and  blood-thirsty  barbarians,  in  order  to  act- 
ualize a  certain  point  in  the  plan  of  Providence.  The 
insensible  and  unconscious  ghost  of  Edward  von  Hart- 
mann's  philosophy,  as  well  as  the  dead  and  cold  and 
irrational  fetish  of  atheism,  might  be  expected  to  do 
that  or  any  other  illogical  thing,  and  as  Schopen- 
hauer desires,  drive  at  last  all  men  to  voluntary  sui- 
cide. We,  however,  who  see  in  nature  and  history 
infinite  manifestations  of  God's  wisdom  and  goodness, 
feel  and  know  with  every  fiber  of  our  hearts  and 
every  spark  of  our  souls,  that  God  is  the  gracious 
and  all-just  father  of  man;  we  cannot  admit  for  a 
moment  that  he  leads  the  human  family  to  its 
proper  ends  by  a  series  of  horrible  crimes,  either  by 
vicarious  atonements  or  the  bloody  sacrifices  of  re- 
lentless necessity.  The  wickedness  of  man  is  his 
own,  in  consequence  of  his  free  will,  without  which 
he  could  not  be  man.  It  is  neither  the  devil  nor 
any  other  outside  agency  which  led  Guiteau  to  slay 
the  President  of  the  United  States.  It  is  neither  the 
devil  nor  any  other  outside  agency  which  produced 
anti-Semitism  in  Germany,  which  infuriated  the  Rus- 
sians   to   the  commission  of  shocking    crimes  on  their 


AND   THE   HISTORY  OF   GENIUS.  211 

Hebrew  neighbors.  The  wickedness  is  man's  wicked- 
ness, and  the  crimes  are  his  own,  when  his  egotism 
overpowers  his  moral  conscience,  either  because  his 
reason  is  defective  or  because  oppression  has  obscured 
his  intellectual  light;  either  because  he  has  been  de- 
moralized by  others  or  has  demoralized  himself.  We 
think  that  such  general  eruptions  and  murderous  com- 
motions of  senseless  multitudes  are  quieted  in  proper 
time  by  the  proper  genius,  who  adjusts  the  dissonances 
and  leads  the  infuriated  mobs  into  the  rational  chan- 
nel, to  turn  the  evil  to  good,  as  was  often  done, 
and  especially  in  the  Crusades.  It  is  again  genius, 
God-sent  genius,  and  not  blind  casualty  which  makes 
and  shapes   the   history  of  man. 

This  leads  us  to  the  history  of  genius  itself,  which  is 
another  cry  of  woe,  a  terrible  dissonance  in  history. 
If  Schiller  had  not  written  his  Theilung  der  Erde,  in 
which  the  starvation  fare  of  the  poet  is  so  poetically 
and  pathetically  described,  we  would  know  anyhow 
that  the  men  of  genius  by  the  thousands  were  con- 
demned to  be  the  beggars  of  society,  ill-fated  and 
badly-paid  house  servants  of  Providence.  It  is  natural 
to  genius  to  care  less  than  others  for  the  wealth  and 
luxury  of  this  earth.  He  is  a  stranger  and  sojourner 
on  earth,  and  can  expect  of  it  no  more  than  the  pos- 
session of  a  grave,  a  sepulcher  and  a  monument  after 
death.  Heaven  is  his  home,  he  is  Heaven'^  messen- 
ger, and  with  his  eyes  lifted  heavenward  he  sees  not 
the  good  things  of  this  world,  which  the  ants  and 
day  laborers  of  this  earth  find  abundantly.  No  man 
eats  at  two  tables.  Those  who  eat  of  Heaven's 
manna  cannot  at  the  same  time  look  out  eagerly  for 
bread  and  butter.  No  genius  can  be  bent  upon  amass- 
ing wealth ;  hence  it  occurs  not  seldom  that  an  un- 
grateful world    puts    him  on    the  poorhouse   list,    and 


212  GENIUS   IN   HISTORY 

furnishes     the   starved    man   with   a    sepulcher   and   an 
artistic   monument. 

No  man  can  be  called  a  genius  if  he  does  not  con- 
ceive original  and  supersensuous  truisms,  and  every 
father  loves  his  children  best.  But  this  world  loves  and 
values  the  sensuous  and  sensual  much  more,  and  looks 
upon  the  man  of  higher  ideals  and  higher  endeavors  as 
an  impractical,  visionary,  and  perhaps,  foolish  man,  who 
is  pitied  or  derided,  or  thrown  among  the  class  of 
"cranks."  So  the  poor  genius  with  a  world  in  his 
heart,  the  harmony  of  the  universe  in  his  soul,  is  re- 
fused an  humble  home  and  a  frugal  meal  on  this  earth. 

No  man,  as  a  poet,  an  author,  a  philosopher,  a  states- 
man, an  apostle  of  freedom,  justice,  progress  and  ele- 
vation, can  be  called  a  genius  unless  he  is  far  in  ad- 
vance of  his  contemporaries,  unless  he  penetrates  pro- 
phetically the  mists  of  the  future,  sees  and  proposes 
now  that  which  must  be  done  now  to  avoid  the 
threatening  calamities  and  to  hasten  the  approach  of 
the  blessing  in  store.  Those  who  merely  understand 
how  to  make  use  of  passing  events,  current  feeling 
and  latent  desires  of  the  masses,  are  mere  reflectors 
of  the  age,  often  very  useful  and  very  successful  tal- 
ents, but  none  of  them  is  a  genius,  who  must  be  far 
in  advance  of  his  age  by  prophetical  penetration  and 
executive  force.  Alas !  the  communities  cannot  look 
so  far  ahead,  cannot  perceive  objects  so  high,  so  far 
beyond  the  narrow  horizon,  and  the  genius  appears  to 
them  like  the  man  in  the  moon,  they  have  no  under- 
standing, no  sympathy  and  no  bread  for  him,  and  the 
poor  genius  withers  and  perishes.  Centuries  thereafter 
his  sepulcher  is  whitewashed  and  an  artistic  monument 
tells  posterity :  Here  lies  a  starved  genius.  Such  is 
the  history  of  genius  in  general,  its  exceptions  are 
few  and   far  apart. 


AND  THE   HISTORY  OF  GENIUS.  213 

The  best  illustration,  })erhai)H,  for  the  history  of  gen- 
ius is  the  Hebrew  people.  The  most  sublime  and 
most  powerful  geniuses  ever  known  in  the  history  of 
man  are  beyond  a  doubt  the  ancestor,  the  legislator, 
the  prophets  and  the  bards  of  Israel,  whose  super- 
sensuous  treasures  are  still  the  fountain  of  life  and 
salvation  to  the  civilized  world.  There  exist  no  ideas 
and  no  ideals  loftier  and  holier,  grander  and  more 
universal  and  supersensuous  than  those  which  spouted 
forth  from  their  great  souls  reflecting  the  brilliant  col- 
ors of  heaven  and  eternity  to  illuminate  the  millions 
of  all  climes  and  times.  "Touch  not  my  Messiahs  and 
maltreat  not  my    prophets,"  said   the  sacred   bard. 

On  the  whole  the  ancient  Hebrews  treated  their  gen- 
iuses pretty  well.  Wicked  and  idolatrous  kings  per- 
secuted and  even  slew  prophets.  The  people  venerated 
and  loved  the  messengers  of  the  Most  High.  And  so 
the  spirit  of  those  lofty  geniuses  was  incarnated  in  the 
body  of  the  congregation  of  Israel.  Gradually  the 
whole  nation  became  the  representative  reality  of  its 
sublime  geniuses,  genius  itself  in  its  state  of  actual- 
ization. Open  the  world's  history  and  shudder.  The 
blood  congeals  in  the  veins  and  heart  of  every  sensible 
man  in  contemplating  the  series  of  outrages  perpetrated 
on  the  genius  of  Israel.  So  genius  was  treated  b}^ 
vulgar  masses.  Shift  the  sceneries,  turn  the  leaves  in 
the  book  of  history  and  blush.  Nineteenth  Century,  so 
genius  is  treated  now,  so  Israel  was  outraged  but  yes- 
terday in  Protestant  Prussia  first,  in  horror-stricken 
Russia  now.  Hide  thy  face,  benign  humanity,  cover 
thy  blushing  countenance,  nineteenth  centur}^,  so  gen- 
ius is   maltreated  now. 

It  is  true  that  Germany  as  a  nation  has  redeemed 
its  name  and  fame  in  the  last  public  election  and 
has   in   part    at  least    avenged    the    wrongs  committed 


^14  OENIUS  m  filSTORV 

in  its  midst,  and  blotted  out  the  stains  imposed  on 
its  national  character.  It  is  no  less  true  that  the 
Russians  are  not  yet  out  of  the  Middle  Ages,  whose 
spirit  of  slavery,  ignorance,  intolerance  and  fanati- 
cism has  been  artificially  preserved  by  an  autocratic 
and  despotic  form  of  government,  a  selfish  and  rude 
aristocracy  led  by  heartless  demagogues.  It  is  no  less 
true  that  the  whole  civilized  world  condemns  the 
barbarous  crimes  committed  there,  and  has  opened 
its  gates  for  the  fugitives  from  Sodom  and  Gomorrah. 
But  this  only  proves  that  genius  is  not  so  univer- 
sally maltreated  now  in  Christendom  as  it  was  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  when  the  Arabs  opened  their  homes  to 
receive  the  outcasts  of  the  lands  of  Edom.  At  the 
same  time  it  shows  that  the  fate  of  genius  has  im- 
proved  here   and   there,  but   not  everywhere. 

If  you  ask  me  why  the  Jew^s  are  forever  the  tar- 
get of  the  petulant  and  barbarous  assassins  of  human 
happiness,  I  must  answer  with  the  question,  why  is 
genius,  why  are  the  representatives  of  genius,  the  tar- 
get of  the  same  assassins?  The  Jew  is  the  representa- 
tive of  eternal  and  the  loftiest  genius,  he  suffers 
the  fate  of  genius.  Are  we  not  a  century  in  ad- 
vance of  the  world  in  our  religious  conceptions,  in 
our  charitable  practices  and  in  our  fraternal  oneness? 
Is  not  the  Russian  Jew  also  a  philosopher  in  com- 
parison to  the  vulgar  peasant  and  nobleman  of 
Russia?  Are  we  not  the  perpetual  protestation 
against  the  world's  superstitions  and  atheism?  Are 
we  not  the  loudest  voice  crying  in  the  wilderness 
for  toleration,  humanity  and  the  unity  of  mankind  on 
the  moral  and  intellectual  basis?  Are  we  not,  like 
all  genius,  centuries  in  advance  of  the  vulgar  ideas 
and  ideals  which  govern  the  millions?  Well,  then, 
ours   is  the   common   fate   of   genius,    because   such    is 


AND   THE   HISTORY  OF   GENIUS.  21 S 

human  nature,  willi  tliis  only  exception  that  you 
or  he  and  she  may  go  and  leave  us  to  our  fate. 
But  you  do  not,  you  would  not;  you  know  why? 
Because  you  cannot;  genius  must,  it  has  no  will  of 
its  own,  it  hears  a  commission  from  on  high  which 
compels  it  to  go  and  do  the  will  of  the  highest  au- 
thority. 

These  facts  of  history  almost  compel  one  to  helieve 
in  a  future  reward,  in  the  world  of  spirit  and  eter- 
nal hliss,  where  all  those  glorious  geniuses,  who  have 
brought  heaven's  revelations  to  man,  find  their  re- 
ward in  light  and  life,  in  bliss  and  glory  eternal. 
But  they  also  bestow  upon  us  the  hope  of  a  better 
future  for  the  human  family  on  earth.  For  in  the 
same  ratio  as  culture,  science  and  enlightenment  advance 
among  individuals,  communities  or  nations,  the  higher 
genius  is  respected,  protected  and  honored.  And  the 
more  this  is  the  case,  the  nearer  man  approaches  its 
loftiest  ideas,  and  its  ideal  of  ideals,  God,  love,  virtue, 
righteousness,  freedom  and  unity.  Sleep  not,  slumber  not, 
worry  not,  gifted  sons  of  God,  chosen  messengers  of 
heaven,  blessed  vision  of  genius ;  announce  thy  glorious 
messages  of  beauty,  grandeur,  sublimity,  truth,  love 
or  goodness  to  weeping  humanity,  distil  heaven's  dew 
upon  nature's  languishing  offspring;  bring  light,  more 
light  of  truth  and  goodness  into  this  labyrinth  of  ob- 
scurity, and  let  him  who  sent  you  take  care  of  your 
reward.  The  fiery  chariot  drawn  by  steeds  of  fire 
carries  Elijah  heavenward.  Below  on  earth  stands 
Elishah,  whom  he  has  taken  from  behind  the  plough 
and  made  of  him  a  prophet ;  below  stands  posterity, 
and  admires  the  genius  as  it  soars  aloft  heavenward, 
and  leaves  on  earth  its  blessings  in  the  minds  of  its 
benefited  disciples,  as  it  soars  aloft  in  majestic  grand- 
eur   and   casts    its   mantle    upon    benefited     humanity. 


216  GENIUS   IN   HISTORY. 

The  grave  of  the  greatest  genius,  Moses,  is  unknown 
to  man.  Genius  has  no  grave.  The  true  and  the 
good  cannot  be  buried.  A  tear  for  the  sufferings  of 
genius  on  earth,  and  thanks  to  God,  that  genius  has 
no  grave,  and  the  good  and  true,  the  beautiful  and  the 
sublime,  live  forever  imperishable  monuments  of  genius. 


THE   NEED   OF  A   LIVING   CREED. 


BY    REV.    DR.    K.    KOHLER. 


In  opening  our  Friday  evening  lecture  course  to- 
night, I  wish  to  speak  of  the  principle  upon  which  we 
stand,  to  unfurl  the  banner  around  which  we  must 
rally,  Israel's  living  God,  and  emphasize  the  need  of  a 
living  creed.  We  call  creeds  such  beliefs  as  are  ob- 
tained from  books  and  recited  in  formulas  dry  as  the 
leaves  in  autumn.  No  such  creed  made  and  shaped 
by  men  have  I  in  mind.  A  creed  that  makes  and 
shapes  our  lives,  that  lends  meaning  and  purpose  to 
our  existence,  is  what  we  need.  There  was  a  time  of 
great  distress  and  depression  in  Israel,  and  the  farmer's 
son  Gideon  had  to  hide  his  wheat  crops  from  the  ra- 
pacious Midianites  when  an  angel  of  God  addressed 
him  saying :  "The  Lord  is  with  thee,  valiant  hero." 
"  Why,  if  the  Lord  were  with  us,  no  such  calamity  could 
have  befallen  us,"  rejoined  Gideon ;  but  the  angel  said : 
"  Go  thou  with  this  thy  might,  and  thou  shalt  save 
s.  Israel  from  his  foes,  for  the  Lord  is  with  thee."  Here 
is  the  history  of  all  great  men  given  in  a  nut-shell. 
They  realize  the  hardship  and  woe  of  the  time  keener 
than  the  rest,  but  they  also  feel  all  the  stronger  the 
impulse  to  act,  because  God  is  a  living  power  in  them 
and  no  mere  name.  It  is  not  learning  and  oratory,  nor 
philosophy  and  science,  nor  any  of  the  arts  and  forms 

1217) 


2l§  Tii^  NEEiJ  OP  A  LIVING  CREED. 

of  culture  that  make  men  great  and  give  history  its 
powerful  impetus.  It  is  the  concentrated  energy  of 
faith  in  one  single  individual  that  moves  the  thousands 
and  leads  them  to  victory  over  hostile  powers,  however 
numerous. 

A  single  man  like  Noah,  or  Abraham,  or  Moses 
saves  a  world  from  doom.  A  single  Luther,  or  Crom- 
well, or  Mendelssohn  liberates  generations.  And  by 
what  means?  By  the  creed  that  molded  their  lives, 
by  the  living  God  within  them.  However  small  their 
resources,  they  have  God  on  their  side,  and  His  om- 
nipotence is  theirs.  Doubt  had  no  place  in  hearts  like 
Elijah's  or  Luther's.  They  stood  fast  like  a  tower, 
though  the  earth  shook  beneath  their  feet. 

We  theorize  too  much.  Our  age  of  reason  has  raised 
a  generation  of  critics,  cynics  and  cowards.  Most  of 
us  lack  the  strength  to  do  great  things,  to  bring  great 
sacrifices  for  a  great  cause  as  did  the  men  of  yore.  We 
cannot  stand  the  flattering  smiles  of  fortune,  nor  the 
frowns  of  misfortune.  Agnosticism  has  become  the  dis- 
ease of  the  century.  Arguing  avails  nothing.  All  our 
lecturing  has  failed  to  kindle  the  fire  of  religion,  the 
right  enthusiasm  of  a  holy  conviction  in  our  midst. 
Religion  comes  from  within,  not  from  without. 

The  Bible  says,  Noah  and  Enoch  walked  with  God. 
"Walk  before  me  and  be  perfect,"  said  God  to 
Abraham.  And  defining  religion,  Micah  says :  "Thou 
hast  been  told  what  is  good  and  what  the  Lord  requires 
of  thee,  i  Do  justly,  love  mercy  and  walk  humbly  with 
thy  God."  To  be  sure,  they  had  neither  a  creed  nor  a 
Bible  in  the  days  of  the  patriarchs  and  the  prophets, 
but  they  felt  the  pangs  of  conscience,  they  carried  the 
law  of  morality  in  their  bosom,  they  had  rules  of 
ethical  conduct  even  in  the  days  of  the  Flood.  Still 
they    lacked    a    life-force,  a  motive  power     to     fashion 


I^hn:   NEl^D  Ot^  A  LIVING  CRteED.  519 

society  after  moral  prlncii)les.  There  was  no  fear  oi 
God,  no  faith  in  God  in  the  multitude.  The  patriarchs 
and  prophets  alone  walked  with  God,  held  Him  before 
their  eyes  as  a  guide  and  pattern  of  righteousness, 
and    followed   Him,   and   became   the  world's  saviors. 

AVe  need  a  living  God.  Cold  abstract  principles  do 
not  create  characters,  do  not  make  men  just  and  good. 
You .  must  have  the  animating  spirit  of  goodness  in 
you  in  order  to  be  good.  Whatever  virtue  and  man- 
hood the  atheist  displays,  it  is  the  fruit  of  the  reli- 
gion of  his  fathers. 

Neither  will  all  philosophy,  all  theories  on  optim- 
ism and  pessimism,  impart  to  you  the  strength  to 
bear  up  bravely  under  trial  and  grief,  unless  you  have 
learned  how  to  walk  with  God  as  with  a  friend,  to  be 
sustained  by  the  realization  of  His  love  and  sympathy 
and  for  His  sake  to  suffer  and  to  sacrifice  whatsoever 
He  demands.  "Have  I  God  with  me  in  heaven,  I 
need   nothing  on   earth,"   says  the    Psalmist. 

To  Judah,  the  Saint,  a  Roman  emperor  sent  a  rare 
jewel  as  a  gift,  and  in  return  he  forwarded  to  him  a 
little  scroll  w^ith  the  "Sh'ma  Israel"  written  on  it  as 
a  charm,  saying:  "Mine  is  more  valuable  than  yours. 
Your  treasure  I  must  constantly  guard  against  robbers; 
mine  will  guard  you  and  your  treasures."  Yes,  what- 
ever men  prize,  life  or  earthly  goods,  is  not  safe  and 
needs  watching.  Your  religion  watches  over  you, 
shields  your  character,  lifts  you  above  trial  and  temp- 
tation. For  your  own  safety's  sake  choose  God  as 
leader,  make  Him  your  strength  and  your  victor}^ ! 

But  you  do  not  stand  alone.  Religion  is  not,  as  you 
imagine,  a  mere  matter  of  choice.  Whether  you  recog- 
nize it  or  not,  you  are,  with  every  blood  molecule  in 
your  veins,  with  every  cell  of  your  brain,  with  every 
fiber  of  your  heart,   Jews.     You   cannot  shirk   a   duty 


220  THE  NEED  OF  A  LIVING  CREED. 

imposed  on  you  by  all  the  force  of  a  four  thousand 
years'  history.  Either  good  and  loyal,  or  bad  and  dis- 
loyal Jews— this  is  the  issue  before  the  world.  To  be 
or  not  to  be,  to  be  either  godless  humanitarians,  lost 
in  a  vast  sea  where  there  is  no  anchoring  ground  for 
the  soul,  or  firmly  planted  upon  the  Rock  of  Ages  and 
pointing  to  the  goal  whither  the  centuries  of  history 
are  marching  ?  This  is  the  question  for  the  enlightened 
Jews  to-day. 

What  gave  the  Jew  the  power  to  resist  a  world  in 
arms  and  become  the  unconquered  conqueror  of  the 
centuries?  Not  his  treasures  of  gold,  nor  his  worldly 
wisdom,  though  he  knew  how  to  appreciate  both.  It 
was  his  faith  that  preserved  him  and  kept  him  alive. 
It  was  his  God  who  triumphed  over  all  the  art  and 
philosophy  of  Egypt  and  Greece.  It  was  the  living  God 
of  Israel  who  vanquished  all  the  dead  gods  of  Pagan- 
dom and  challenged  the  God  of  Christianity  who  died 
on  the  cross. 

The  secret  of  monotheism  is  that  it  defies  the  rule 
of  arithmetic  and  asserts  that  the  One  is  more  than 
the  man3\  Count  all  the  wheels  and  rudders,  the 
sails  and  masts,  the  men  and  goods  in  a  ship,  what 
are  they  against  the  one  who  stands  at  the  helm  and 
steers  it  towards  its  goal?  So  are  the  myriads  of 
hosts  of  heaven  and  the  millions  of  forces  and  forms 
of  the  universe  nothing  against  the  Unseen,  yet  All- 
seeing  One  who  shapes  and  directs  their  course.  And 
of  what  account  is  million-headed  humanity,  what  are 
all  the  mechanical  and  dynamic  powers  that  keep 
the  machinery  of  social  hfe  going,  what  are  the  politi- 
cal or  ethical  motors  of  history,  the  ages,  the  nations, 
the  races  and  sects,  compared  with  the  One  Mind  for 
which  all  minds  yearn,  the  One  Source  of  Love  from 
^hich    all  hearts   derive    inspiration   and    comfort,   the 


THE   NEED    OF   A   LIVING   CREED.  221 

majestic  Being  who  marshals  them  all  and,  wherever 
and  whatsoever  they  are,  His  everlasting  arms  are  be- 
neath to  carry  them  whither  He  wishes.  With  this 
God  our  fathers  walked  and  braved  the  fire  and  the 
sword,  the  onslaught  of  time  and  the  deluge  of  sin 
and  suffering  round  about.  This  God  of  the  Bible 
has  become  humanity's  God,  the  luminous  center  of 
our  civilization,  the  Tower  of  Christendom,  the  Shield 
of  every  home,  the  Refuge  of  every  devout  soul.  And 
we,  the  first-born  among  God's  children,  dare  deny 
Him  and  suffer  His  name  to  be  desecrated  in  high 
and  lowly  places  and  fall  into  oblivion  in  our  own 
homes?  As  was  said  to  Jonah:  "While  all  the  rest 
lie  on  their  knees  in  prayer  and  adoration  before  the 
Most  High,  darest  thou,  God's  prophet,  sent  forth  to 
preach  His  truth  to  the  Gentiles,  remain  asleep  in  the 
face  of  the  raging  storm?" 

No  wonder  that  the  modern  Jew  is  despised,  disliked 
and  distrusted.  The  Jew  without  a  God  is  a  mon- 
strosity, an  object  of  fear.  We  are  weak  and  count 
little  in  the  council  of  nations,  because  we  are  divided, 
we  are  split  into  factions,  without  the  uniting  bond  of 
a  living  creed.  Doubt  and  unbelief  have  sapped  our 
strength,  our  manhood.  In  quest  of  mammon,  we 
have  lost  sight   of  our  goal,   of  our   God. 

Let  us  again  stand  for  the  living  creed  of  the  Jew, 
for  Israel's  Holy  God,  for  Israel's  Bible,  for  Israel's 
Sabbath,  for  Israel's  home  sanctity,  for  Israel's  law  of 
justice  and  truth,  and  united  we  shall  be  invincible. 
Let  us  rally  again  around  our  synagogue,  as  the  Chris- 
tian does  around  his  church.  Let  us  bring  the  needed 
sacrifice  for  our  father's  faith  to  make  it  our  source  of 
strength  and  our  purpose  of  fife,  and  we  shall  see  the 
world  at  our  feet.  Too  long  have  we  been  trifling 
with  the  name  of  Jew.     Let  us  be  Jews  in  creed  and 


222  THE   NEED    OF   A    LIVING    CREED. 

in  deed,  positive  and  emphatic  both  in  belief  and  ob- 
servance, proud  of  our  history,  eager  to  work  out  our 
task  as  Jews,  and,  like  Gideon,  we  may  leave  thousands 
that  are  timid  behind,  but  go  with  the  hundreds  that 
are  faithful  and  true  and  win  the  battle,  for  the  God 
of  mankind  will  be   with  us.     Amen. 


'WHO  IS  THE  REAL  ATHEIST?" 


BY    REV.    DR.    ADOLPH    MOSES,     LOUISVILLE. 


Time  was — and  that  time  does  not  by  any  means 
belong  to  a  remote  past— when  atheism  was  regarded 
as  the  most  heinous  crime  of  which  a  human  being 
could  render  himself  guilty.  To  be  accused  of  atheism 
meant  to  be  dragged  before  the  tribunal  of  the  state,  as 
was  done  in  the  days  of  antiquity,  or  before  the  bar 
of  an  ecclesiastical  court,  as  was  the  practice  during 
the  Middle  Ages  and  for  nearly  two  centuries  after  the 
Reformation,  there  to  be  arrainged  as  the  worst  of 
criminals,  compared  with  whom  even  a  murderer 
seemed  to  be  an  angel  of  innocence.  If  convicted,  and 
an  atheist  was  rarely  acquitted,  he  was  condemned  to 
die  a  felon's  death.  The  curses  of  the  community  fol- 
lowed him  to  the  place  of  execution.  No  tombstone 
was  allowed  to  mark  his  resting-place.  One  suspected 
of  atheism  was  shunned  like  a  leper,  and  hated  as 
if  he  were  a  fiend  incarnate.  Yet  how  many  glorious 
champions  of  truth,  how  many  path-finders  of  human- 
ity, how  many  saints  of  the  earth,  whose  noble  lives 
were  the  best  indications  of  the  belief  in  a  God  of 
holiness,  have  been  persecuted  with  merciless  fanaticism 
as  atheists,  as  the  worst  enemies  of  the  human  race! 
The  Greek  philosopher,  Anaxagoras,  who  taught  the 
profoundest  of  all  religious  doctrines,  that  the  universe 


224  "who  is  the  real  atheist?" 

was  shaped  into  purposeful  harmony  by  an  All-wise 
and  Almighty  mind,  being  accused  of  atheism  was 
thrown  into  prison,  from  which  he  secretly  escaped  and 
then  fled  from  Athens  in  hot  haste.  Even  his  pow- 
erful friend  Pericles  could  not  protect  him  against  the 
suspicion  and  the  hatred  of  the  masses.  Socrates,  the 
wisest  and  most  pious  of  all  Greeks,  whose  philosophy 
marks  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  the  human  mind, 
and  whose  life  came  to  be  to  the  Hellenic  world, 
what  that  of  Jesus  is  to  Christendom,  was  condemned 
by  an  Athenian  jury  as  an  atheist,  and  in  his  70th 
year  compelled  to  drink  the  cup  of  deadly  hemlock. 
Giordano  Bruno,  on  the  17th  of  February,  1600,  was 
burned  in  Rome  as  an  enemy  of  God.  And  j^et  that 
reputed  atheist  taught,  that  God  is  the  unity  of  the 
universe,  the  universal  substance,  the  one  and  the 
only  principle,  the  efficient  and  final  cause  of  all,  the 
begirining,  middle  and  end,  eternal  and  infinite.  Spin- 
oza, whom  Schleiermacher  called  "a  God-intoxicated 
man,"  he  who  ascribed  real  existence  to  God  alone, 
declaring  all  finite  beings  to  be  mere  manifestations  of 
the  Infinite  and  Absolute,  was  not  only  excommuni- 
cated by  his  own  co-religionists,  but  was  until  recent 
times  universally  regarded  with  horror  and  hatred  as 
the  worst  and  most  dangerous  of  atheists.  The  Jews 
were  loathed  by  the  Pagans  as  a  people  that  believed 
in  no  God.  So  utterly  fallible  and  so  baneful  in  its 
effects  has  the  world's  judgment  in  all  times  and 
among  all  nations  proved  to  be,  as  regards  atheists 
and  atheism.  As  a  rule  the  so-called  atheists  of  one 
age  become  the  venerated  religious  teachers  and  spirit- 
ual guides  of  after  ages.  Those  that  perished  amid  the 
execration  of  their  generation  came  to  live  transfigured 
in  the  mind  and  heart  of  later  generations  as  types  of 
an  ideal  humanity. 


"who  is  the  real  atheist?"  225 

The  fact  of  the  matter  is,  no  original  thinker,  no 
genuine  seeker  after  truth,  has  ever  been  a  real  athe- 
ist. The  alleged  atheists  simply  differed  more  or  less 
profoundly  from  the  theology  of  those  who  passed 
judgment  upon  them.  The  Greek  philosophers  who 
were  indicted  on  a  charge  of  atheism  did  not  believe 
in  the  Olympian  gods,  holding  as  they  did  monothe- 
istic views.  The  Jews  were  hated  by  the  heathen 
world  as  atheists,  for  the  reason  that  they  denied  the 
existence  of  the  gods  of  the  Gentiles.  Similarly  the 
men  that  were  hunted  down  and  brought  to  an  un- 
timely end  as  atheists  in  Christian  lands,  only  rejected 
certain  dogmas,  held  by  the  established  churches  to  be 
essential  principles  of  faith,  without  which  it  was  be- 
lieved  religion   would   be   destroyed. 

Again,  most  scientists  are  reproached  by  over-zealous 
theologians  with  being  atheists  and  teaching  atheism. 
"You  teach  an  atheistic  science,"  they  cry.  "You  leave 
God  out  of  your  astronomy,  your  geology,  chemistry, 
botany,  zoology  and  physiology.  No  mention  is  ever 
made  in  any  of  your  writings  of  the  Maker  of  heaven 
and  earth."  Only  blundering  stupidity,  going  hand 
in  hand  with  blind  intolerance,  can  speak  thus.  It  is 
not  within  the  province  of  science  to  teach  religion  or 
metaphysics,  to  prove  the  facts  of  experience  by  re- 
ferring them  to  the  highest  and  last  cause,  to  trace  all 
phenomena  back   to   the    ultimate  ground   of  existence. 

There  is  certainly  no  religious  mathematics,  there  is 
no  room  for  God  in  a  treatise  on  geometry.  The  en- 
gineer who  elaborated  his  plan  for  the  Brooklyn  bridge 
was  not  expected  to  start  with  the  premise,  that  all 
the  physical  laws  on  which  he  based  his  calculations, 
measurements  and  adjustments,  were  perennial  mani- 
festations of  an  infinite,  eternal  and  immutable  power, 
that  we  worship   as   God. 


226  "who  is  the  real  atheist?" 

It  is  the  sole  office  of  the  investigator  of  nature  to 
ascertain  by  conscientious  observation  and  careful  ex- 
periments all  the  knowable  facts  within  the  range  of 
his  experience,  to  arrange  them  in  the  order  of  their 
closer  or  remoter  relationship,  to  find  the  bond  of 
union  which  binds  them  altogether  into  a  systematic 
whole,  to  discover  the  laws,  according  to  which  they 
live,  move  and  have  their  being.  It  is  the  function  of 
science  to  drive  the  notion  of  accident  and  caprice 
from  her  entire  territory,  to  show  every  physical  event 
as  flowing  of  necessity  from  a  preceding  physical  event 
as  its  cause,  to  demonstrate  that  no  phenomenon  in 
nature  stands  apart  for  itself,  but  forms  a  necessary 
part  of  the  whole  order  of  the  universe,  to  connect  by 
a  chain  of  cause  and  eff'ect  whatever  is  or  happens  in 
the  present  with  the  remotest  possible  past  of  the 
heavens  above  and  the  earth  beneath  or  the  waters 
under  the  earth.  Science  is  neither  theistic  nor  athe- 
istic. It  is  as  little  religious  or  irreligious  as  cooking, 
building,  sewing,  or  ploughing.  It  deals  only  with 
what  is  within  the  ken  of  the  senses,  and  its  boldest 
conclusions  and  theories  in  the  last  resort  go  back  to 
what  the  senses  bear  testimony  to.  Science  proper  has 
nothing  to  do  with  what  is  supersensual  or  beyond  the 
reach  of  the  senses.  It  does  not  meddle  with  ques- 
tions relating  to  the  origin  of  things,  nor  does  it  ex- 
tend its  inquiry  to  the  ultimate  ground  of  all  being. 
It  is  exactly  where  science  ends  that  philosophy  be- 
gins. The  su1>ject  matter  of  philosophy  is  the  infinite 
and  absolute,  the  eternal  ground  of  all  existence,  the 
inscrutable  power  behind  all  j^henomena,  the  cause  of 
all  causes,  the  beginning,  the  middle  and  end  of  all  exis- 
tence that  which  alone  is,  was  and  forever  will  be.  The 
existence  of  the  Infinite  and  Absolute  is  to  all  systems 
of  philosophy  the  highest  and  most  certain  of  all  truths. 


"who  is  the  real  atheist?"  227 

The  idea  of  the  Eternal  is  incomparably  more  in- 
controvertible than  the  several  finite  things  which  we 
may  touch,  taste  or  smell.  The  Infinite  is  to  phil- 
osophy the  only  true  reality,  while  the  finite  is  re- 
garded by  it  as  enigmatic,  doubtful.  And  shall  we  ; 
decry  these  supreme  philosophical  ideas  as  rank  athe- 
ism, because  the  philosophers  prefer  to  call  the  eter- 
nal source  and  cause  of  all  existence  the  Infinite  and 
Absolute,  instead  of  calling  it  by  the  name  of  God? 
The  Hebrew  name  Yahve,  he  that  is,  was,  and  will 
be,  he  that  causes  all  being,  corresponds  exactly  to 
the  philosophical  term  of  Infinite  and  Absolute.  The 
philosophy  of  Spinoza,  the  best  hated  and  calumniated 
of  all  reputed  atheists,  ought  to  be  called,  according 
to  Hegel,  acosmism,  the  doctrine  of  the  nothingness 
of  the  world,  while  reality  is  ascribed  to  God  or  the 
Infinite  alone.  What  is  true  of  Spinoza  holds  good  of 
all  philosophers,  from  Thales  down  to  Herbert  Spencer. 
None  of  them  was  an  atheist,  popular  prejudice  and 
priestly  fanaticism  notwithstanding.  "  But  have  not 
your  philosophers,"  some  might  aek,  "asserted  over 
and  over  again,  that  we  cannot  prove  the  exist- 
ence of  God  ?  Has  not  your  master  Kant  used  the 
gigantic  powers  of  his  mind  to  demolish  one  after  an- 
other, all  the  time-honored  proofs  of  the  existence  of 
God?"  It  is  not  in  wisdom  that  you  ask  thus.  It 
is  because  Kant  and  other  thinkers  of  equal  original- 
ity stood  like  Moses  face  to  face  with  the  Eternal  and 
Infinite,  that  they  wished  to  show  that  all  theistic 
arguments  are  either  untenable  or  insufficient.  How 
can  we  prove  that  which  is  itself  the  proof  of  every- 
thing else,  upon  which  all  other  truths  hang,  without  !> 
which  all  knowledge  would  be  vanity  and  a  striving^' 
after  wind  ?  To  prove  means  to  trace  back  what  is  un-  \ 
certain  and  doubtful,  to  what  is   certain  and  beyond  a 


228  "who  is  the  real  atheist?" 

doubt,  to  explain  the  unknown  by  referring  it  back  to 
what  is  known,  by  showing  it  to  be  akin  to  what  is 
recognized  and  understood.  But  this  process  of  proving 
must  at  last  reach  a  limit.  We  must  finally  arrive  at 
something,  a  proposition  or  cognition,  which  we  cannot 
demonstrate,  because  there  is  nothing  beyond  it,  in 
which  it  might  be  included  or  to  which  it  might  be 
linked.  It  is  the  supreme  truth,  the  most  certain  and 
immediate  of  all  cognitions,  it  is  the  foundation  upon 
which  all  other  verities  rest,  and  without  the  recogni- 
tion  of  which   all  truth  vanishes. 

It  can  neither  be  proved  nor  does  it  require  proof. 
"  The  idea  of  God  or  the  Infinite  is  this  most  general 
truth,  which  cannot  be  reduced  to  a  more  general  one. 
It  is  the  deepest  truth  to  which  we  can  get.  It  cannot 
be  explained,  it  is  inexplicable,  unaccountable."  But 
what  of  materialism,  is  it  not  atheism  ?  Are  there  not 
philosophers  who  derive  all  life  from  the  lowest  to  the 
highest  from  matter  and  motion,  and  deny  the  exist- 
ence of  mind  or  anything  akin  to  mind  in  the  uni- 
verse ?  My  answer  is,  no  serious  thinker  in  our  days 
holds  such  views.  Materialism  has  been  refuted  and 
exploded  as  a  theory  of  the  universe.  It  does  not  ac- 
count for  the  existence  of  mind  in  man  and  animals. 
How  can  mind,  which  is  absolutely  different  from 
matter  and  motion,  be  the  offspring  of  matter  or  the 
child  of  motion?  We  can  by  no  effort  of  thought 
conceive  how  matter  and  motion  could  be  changed 
from  what  they  are  and  be  transformed  into  con- 
sciousness. It  is  simply  unthinkable.  And  if  all  mat- 
ter is  believed  to  have  an  inner  side  to  it,  to  be 
endowed  with  the  qualities  of  feeling  and  the  dim  germs 
of  thought,  then  it  is  no  longer  matter,  but  something 
else,  something  higher.  From  whichever  point  of  view 
we  look  at  it,    philosophical    atheism   turns^out  to   be 


"who  is  the  real  atheist?"  229 

a  mere  fiction,  a  mere  delusion  of  theological  zealots. 
But  who  are  the  real  atheists?  They  whose  conduct 
belies  their  belief  in  the  existence  of  God,  whose  life 
forms  a  glaring  contrast  to  the  idea  of  God.  The  be- 
lief in  a  God  is  not  simply  the  highest  and  most  cer- 
tain of  all  truths,  it  is  also  the  greatest  and  most 
potent  moral  idea.  //The  idea  of  God  implies  the  idea 
of  divine  perfection  and  absolute  goodness. //God  and 
goodness  are  synonymous,  interchangeable  terms.  If  we 
believed  that  God  was  not  goodness,  we  might  fear 
Him,  but  we  could  not  adore  Him.  A  good  man  would 
appear  to  us  more  worshipful  than  He.  'Religion  and 
philosophy  agree  in  holding  that  morality  is  the  high- 
est manifestation  of  the  infinite  in  and  through  the 
soul  of  man.  Whatever  we  may  think  of  its  origin  and 
development,  as  it  is,  it  doubtless  is  the  most  glorious 
incarnation  of  the  inscrutable  Power,  of  the  Universal 
Self.  To  believe  in  God  does  not  mean  that  we  simply 
allow  that  He  exists,  it  means  that  we  strive  to  walk 
in  the  luminous  footsteps  of  His  holiness,  to  walk  in 
the  ways  of  His  justice,  truth  and  mercy.  Every  vir- 
tuous action  is  a  true  act  of  worship.  To  curb  our  pas- 
sions in  obedience  to  the  laws  divine  engraved  upon 
the  tablet  of  our  hearts  is  the  grandest  homage  paid  to 
the  idea  of  God.  To  smite  and  overthrow  the  vaulting 
instincts  of  selfishness  in  order  to  serve  the  common 
good  of  all,  is  the  strongest  proof  that  a  God  of  good- 
ness inspires  the  breast  of  man.  He  is  an  atheist  who 
professes  to  believe  in  God  but  whose  deeds  put  his 
faith  to  shame.  He  who  declares  that  he  considers  the 
Ten  Commandments  a  revelation  of  God  and  yet  vio- 
lates one  and  all,  he  is  the  real  atheist.  He  who  ac- 
knowledges that  we  should  recognize  no  other  God  be- 
side the  Eternal,  and  yet  worships  his  own  poor  self  as 
the    highest    being    and    places   his   own   interests   and 


230  "who   is   the   real   ATHEISTi?" 

pleasures  above  the  highest  interests  and  aims  of  hu- 
manity, he  is  a  real  atheist.  He  who  perjures  himself, 
who  swears  a  false  oath  or  utters  lies  to  obtain  profit 
or  gain  favor,  he  does  practically  deny  God,  he  demon- 
strates that  he  does  not  believe  in  Him  "that  will  not 
let  him  go  unpunished  that  taketh  His  name  in  vain." 
Whoever  fails  to  honor  his  father  and  mother  as  the 
representatives  of  God  on  earth,  whoever,  in  heartless 
selfishness,  neglects  his  aged  parents  and  refuses  to  sur- 
round their  declining  years  with  blessings  and  comforts, 
he  is  an  atheist,  though  he  daily  bend  his  knee  in 
adoration  to  Him  and  sound  His  praises  in  the  midst 
of  the  assembly.  He  that  makes  of  himself  a  slave  of 
Mammon,  who  in  his  greed  to  amass  wealth,  lets  the 
higher  powers  of  his  mind  and  heart  run  to  waste, 
verily  he  is  an  atheist;  he  does  by  his  conduct  prove 
that  he  does  not  believe  man  to  be  a  child  and  image 
of  the  Most  High,  destined  to  pattern  his  life  upon  that 
of  divine  perfection.  He  that  defrauds  his  neighbors 
in  any  matter  great  or  small,  who  uses  false  weights 
and  false  measures,  is  an  atheist,  he  does  not  believe  in 
a  God  that  hates  deception  and  injustice.  He  is  an 
atheist  that  deprives  the  toiler  of  his  wages,  and 
takes  away  from  the  needy  the  fruit  of  his  labor.  That 
man  is  indeed  an  atheist,  who  robs  the  substance  of 
his  fellow-men  by  violating  the  laws  of  the  land,  or  by 
bribing  legislatures  to  enact  wicked  laws  to  favor  his 
iniquitous  schemes. 

^Whoever  sacrifices  duty  and  conscience  to  his  pas- 
sions, is  a  rank  atheist.  The  priest  at  the  altar  is  an 
atheist,  the  teacher  of  righteousness  and  faith,  whose 
heart  burns  with  the  unholy  fire  of  lust.  Though  he 
make  many  genuflections  and  lift  his  eyes  in  prayer 
to  Heaven,  he  does  deny  God  in  his  sinful  soul.  All 
those   were   real   atheists,   who   persecuted   their   fellow- 


"who  is  the  real  atheist?"  231 

men  on  account  of  their  faith,  who  tortured  and  mur- 
dered the  children  of  God  in  the  name  of  God. 
Torquemada  and  Arbenas  were  atheists,  in  spite  of 
the  fact  that  they  scourged  their  bodies  and  sang 
many  litanies  in  honor  of  their  God.  That  ruler  is 
an  atheist  and  an  enemy  of  God,  who  grinds 
the  faces  of  the  poor  and  needy,  who  oppresses 
men  on  account  of  race  and  religion,  who  deprives 
human  beings  of  the  right  to  earn  a  livelihood,  who 
withholds  from  them  the  means  of  acquiring  knowl- 
edge and  leading  the  lives  of  human  beings.  The 
Czar  of  Russia  is  an  atheist,  although  he  is  at  the 
head  of  the  National  Church;  his  wicked  counsellors 
deny  God,  because  they  rebel  against  the  laws  of  di- 
vine justice.  He  is  an  atheist  who  calls  darkness 
light  and  evil  good,  who  praises  the  despot,  that 
drives  mothers  with  their  babes  out  of  their  homes 
in   mid-winter,   and  causes  many  infants  to  die   of  cold 

and     starvation.     The     irreverend    Dr is     an 

atheist,  though  Sunday  after  Sunday  he  cuts  capers 
in  his  pulpit,  and  calls  himself  the  servant  of  God. 
The  God  of  truth  and  justice  is  not  in  his  heart,  else 
he  could  not  call  a  tyrant  a  benefactor  of  his  people, 
who  causes  infinite  woe  and  misery  throughout  the 
length  and  breadth  of  his  land.  All  those  teachers  of 
religion  are  atheists,  the  Stoeckers  and  the  Bohlings, 
who  on  Sundays  preach  from  their  pulpits,  "Love 
thy  enemy  as  thyself,"  but  as  soon  as  they  step  out 
of  their  church,  preach  and  practice  hatred  and  malice, 
spread  calumnies  and  baneful  falsehoods,  and  excite 
in  the  breasts  of  the  masses  vile  and  blood-thirsty 
passions. 

Whoever  holds  that  a  man  can   be  religious   without 
trying  to   be   absolutely  just,  truthful   and  merciful  to-  .^ 
ward   all   men,   denies  and   blasphemes   God.     Whoever  '■ 


232  "who  is  the  real  atheist?" 

treats  his  fellow-men  with  contempt,  and  deems  them 
unworthy  of  associating  with  him  on  account  of  race 
or  religion,  is  an  atheist,  because  he  practically  denies 
that  all  men  are  children  of  one  Heavenly  Father, 
that  loves  them  all  and  whose  majesty  resides  in  them 
all.  It  is  on  account  of  such  practical  atheism  that 
the  earth  mourns  and  is  full  of  desolation.  It  is  on 
account  of  such  practical  atheism  that  the  cries  of  the 
depressed  and  down-trodden  are  heard.  Such  atheism 
is  the  parent  of  infinite  woe  and  misery.  Such  practi- 
cal atheism  has  drenched  the  earth  with  the  tears  and 
the  blood  of  the  innocent.  Alas,  how  many  are  en- 
tirely free  from  practical  atheism?  Ministers  and  lay- 
men, men  and  women.  Gentiles  and  Israelites,  one  way 
or  another  deny  God  in  their  conduct.  Oh,  let  us  not 
glory  in  the  religious  doctrines  we  hold,  let  us  not 
boast  of  the  principles  of  faith,  which  we  profess.  By 
our  fruits  alone  let  us  prove  that  we  believe  in  an 
all-just,  all-wise  and  all-merciful  God.  Let  us  gird  our- 
selves with  strength  and  strive  to  establish  the  king- 
dom of  God,  the  kingdom  of  righteousness  and  love  on 
earth.  Let  us  endeavor  to  make  our  lives  symbols  of 
the  perfection  of  God. 


WHAT   WE   HAVE   TO   BE   THANK- 
FUL  FOR. 


BY    REV.    DR.    ADOLPH    MOSES. 


Pricked  by  the  whip  of  anti-Semitism,  the  Jews 
have,  within  the  last  fifteen  years,  been  dwelling  with 
a  sense  of  bitterness  bordering  on  despair  on  the  pain- 
ful difficulties  which  beset  their  path  and  on  the 
cruel  wrongs  which  are  being  done  to  them  in  so 
many  civilized  lands.  Our  best  men  abroad  as  well 
as  in  our  country  have  been  busy  averting  the  stings 
and  arrows  of  outrageous  prejudice  to  which  we  are 
everywhere  exposed.  Our  pulpits  and  our  press  have 
of  late  years  been  ringing  with  solemn  protests  in  the 
name  of  humanity  against  the  superstition,  the  pride 
and  fanaticism  of  race  whose  poisoned  shafts  are 
aimed  at  us  as  alleged  aliens.  Most  sensitive  and 
refined  natures  have  been  consuming  their  hearts  with 
grief  because  they  see  the  Jews'  ardent  love  for  their 
fatherland  and  their  fellow-citizens  despised  and  met 
with  haughty  disdain.  The  curse  and  shame  of  anti- 
Semitism  is  uppermost  in  the  minds  of  the  noblest 
sraelites.  They  are  compelled  to  reckon  with  it  for 
good  and  evil,  and  to  grapple  with  it  along  the  whole 
line  of  battle  which  it  has  opened.  The  warfare  of 
ages  which  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago  was  generally 
believed  to    be  fast    drawing    to   a  close,    and    soon   to 


234  WHAT   WE   HAVE   TO    BE   THANKFUL   FOR. 

terminate  in  permanent  peace  and  spiritual  fraterniza- 
tion, has  been  renewed  on  the  continent  of  Europe 
with  a  fierceness  and  virulence  which  may  well  appal 
the  stoutest  hearts,  and  fill  the  most  hopeful  with 
gloomy   forebodings   for  the   future. 

Yet  it  behooves  us  not  to  look  too  steadily  at  the 
dark  side  of  the  struggle,  but  to  take  into  account  the 
many  bright  and  cheering  elements  in  our  present  con- 
dition for  which  we  ought  to  be  thankful  to  the  con- 
quering spirit  of  humanity.  Above  all,  we  should  not 
contemplate  the  old  yet  ever  new  struggle  for  light,  for 
recognition  and  brotherhood  from  a  purely  Jewish  and 
narrow  standpoint,  but  from  the  point  of  view  of  uni- 
versal progress,  moral  and  spiritual.  We  should  regard 
the  ceaseless  struggle  we  are  engaged  in  as  the  most 
typical  form  which  the  perennial  war  of  evil  against 
good,  of  justice  against  injustice,  of  broad  monotheistic 
humanity  against  narrow  and  race-bound  paganism  as- 
sumes. Let  us  be  grateful  for  the  blessings  of  liberty, 
religious,  civil  and  political,  which  the  worshipers  of 
Jehovah  in  America,  England,  France,  Holland  and 
Italy,  in  Sweden  and  Denmark,  enjoy  to  the  fullest 
extent,  vvliich  are  guaranteed  to  them  by  the  funda- 
mental laws  of  Germany  and  Austria,  although  the 
practice  in  those  Germanic  empires  is  still  sadly  halt- 
ing behind  in  the  theory.  Let  us  be  thankful  for  the 
countless  gifts  of  material  civilization  in  which  we  are 
allowed  to  participate.  Let  us  more  especially  render 
thanks  to  the  genius  of  the  nineteenth  century  for  the 
invaluable  boon  of  modern  intellectual  and  artistic  cul- 
ture in  which  we  are  freely  permitted  to  share  in 
accordance  with  our   capacities,  aspirations   and    labors. 

Compared  with  the  deplorable  and  to  all  appear- 
ance hopeless  condition  of  the  Jews  throughout  the 
Christian  world   down    to    the    latter    part    of    the   last 


WHAT  WE  HAVE  TO   BE  THANKFUL   FOR.  235 

century,  their  present  situation  in  all  civilized  coun- 
tries may  be  called  a  veritable  paradise.  Had  a  pro- 
phet arisen  among  our  great  grandparents  and  drawn 
a  truthful  picture  of  our  life  and  its  favorable  sur- 
roundings, of  our  free  and  fruitful  activities,  of 
our  achievements  and  our  position  in  the  world, 
they  would  have  declared  that  so  happy  a  change 
could  only  be  brought  about  by  the  coming  of  the 
Messiah,  whose  superhuman  power  would  overthrow 
the  established  order  of  things  and  substitute  for  it  the 
kingdom  of  heaven.  For  an  Israelite  born  and  bred 
in  the  atmosphere  of  American  liberty  and  equal- 
ity, of  material  ease  and  comfort  and  intellectual  ex- 
pansiveness,  it  requires  a  strong  effort  of  imagination  to 
realize  the  state  of  utter  wretchedness,  of  social  degreda- 
tion  and  mental  isolation  in  which  his  forefathers  were 
forced  to  live  from  the  times  of  the  Crusades  down 
to  the  last  quarter  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Only  an 
acquaintance  with  the  poorest  Russian  immigrants,  fresh 
from  the  land  of  barbarism,  persecution  and  despostism, 
may  give  to  native  American  Israelites  a  somewhat 
adequate  idea  of  the  lamentable  state  of  the  Jews  in 
Christian  Europe,  before  the  liberating  forces  of  en- 
lightenment and  tolerance  had  issued  forth  from  Amer- 
ica and  France,  and  started  on  their  career  of  world- 
conquest.  The  Jew  was  hated  as  a  natural-born  enemy  ; 
he  was  despised  as  a  pariah  and  treated  as  an  outcast. 
There  was  no  species  of  wickedness  in  the  whole  register 
of  vice  and  crime  of  which  the  Jews  were  not  be- 
lieved capable.  All  good  Christians  were  convinced  ^ 
that  the  black  heart  of  the  Jews  was  constantly  brood-  Qc-^^-^  ^ 
ing  over  ways  and  means  to  inflict  all  possible  harm 
on  the  body  and  soul  of  the  followers  of  Christ.  It 
was  generally  held  that  the  Jews  of  every  country  did 
year  by  year  torture  and  murder  a  number  of  Christian 


236  WHAT   WE   HAVE   TO   iBE   THANKfUL   FOfe. 

children  or  adults  for  religious  purposes.  The  blood  of 
the  victims,  it  was  asserted,  was  by  secret  messengers 
distributed  among  the  various  congregations,  to  be 
mixed  with  their  passover  bread.  More  innocent  Jew- 
ish blood  has  been  spilt  under  the  impulse  of  this  mad 
belief  than  all  the  blood  of  martyrs  shed  for  the  glory  / 
of  the  cross.  Whole  families,  whole  congregations  were 
often  massacred  or  burned  alive,  because  a  Christian 
child  happened  to  be  found  dead.  Priest  and  layman, 
nobleman  and  serf,  alike  gloated  over  the  agonies  of  the 
tortured  Jews.  The  shrieks  of  dying  Israelitish  mothers, 
fathers,  and  children  mingled  horribly  with  the  hallelu- 
jahs and  anthems  chanted  by  fanatical  monks  in  praise 
of  the  holy  Trinity.  The  feast  of  Passover  was  cele- 
brated with  fear  and  trembling ;  for  a  furious  mob 
might  any  moment  burst  in  the  doors  and  with  mur- 
derous yells  fall  upon  the  helpless  wretches  and  turn 
their  songs  into  lamentations,  their  feast  of  joy  and 
liberty  into   the  gloom  of  a  subterranean  dungeon. 

Let  us  be  thankful  for  the  progress  the  Christian 
world  has  made  with  regard  to  that  dreadful  belief, 
which  was  once  held  by  high  and  low,  by  the  learned 
no  less  than  by  the  ignorant,  which  transformed  hu- 
man beings  into  demons,  and  changed  gentle  women 
into  blood-thirsty  furies.  Let  us  be  grateful  to  con- 
quering reason  for  the  victories  which  light  and  hu- 
manity have  already  won  over  darkness  and  blasphem- 
ous fanaticism.  Only  the  vilest,  the  most  benighted 
of  men,  nowadays,  still  hold  fast  to  the  mediaeval 
blood-story.  Only  a  dwindling  minority  of  degraded 
wretches,  of  dehumanized  calumniators,  pretend  to  give 
credence  to  the  disgraceful  fable.  True,  only  a  few 
years  ago  enlightened  Germany  gave  to  the  world  the 
pitiful  spectacle  of  a  trial  in  which  the  old  monstrous 
belief  in   ritual  murders  by  Jews  was  in  all  seriousness 


WHAT   WE   HAVE   TO   BE   THANKFUL   FOR.  237 

upheld,  both  by  so-called  witnesses  and  lawyers.  True, 
a  number  of  secular  and  religious  papers,  both  Protest- 
ant and  Catholic,  stoutly  maintained  that  such  mur- 
ders were  likely  to  occur  even  among  the  Jews  of 
to-day.  But  the  world  at  large  cried  shame  on  these 
proceedings.  The  conscience  of  the  German  people 
rose  in  indignation  and  wrath  against  the  shameful 
instigators  of  that  trial.  The  voice  of  perjured  priests, 
miscalling  themselves  Christians,  the  voice  of  vicious 
and  lying  men  accusing  us  of  the  most  heinous  and 
senseless  of  crimes,  cannot  prevail  against  the  great 
heart  of  modern  humanity,  which  repudiates  with  horror 
the  falsehoods  and  blasphemous  calumnies  of  those  dis- 
guised worshipers  of  Moloch.  This  change  of  attitude 
of  the  European  mind  with  regard  to  the  most  brutal 
and  cruel  calumny  fabricated  against  us,  is  due  to  no 
isolated  cause,  is  to  be  ascribed  to  no  special  line  of 
reasoning,  setting  forth  the  baselessness  of  the  medise- 
val  accusation.  It  was  rather  the  outcome  of  a  general 
process  of  moral  transformation  and  regeneration  which 
set  in  with  the  Reformation,  with  the  return  of  Chris- 
tendom to  the  teachers,  lawgivers  and  apostles  of 
Israel;  with  the  return  to  the  living  fountains  of  right- 
eousness and  mercy  perennially  welling  up  in  the 
Bible.  Till  that  age  of  moral  awakening  the  European 
nations  were  Christian  only  in  name.  In  their  modes 
of  feeling,  habits  of  thought  and  ways  of  action,  they 
were  pagans  like    their  forefathers. 

The  very  essence  of  paganism,  ancient  and  modern, 
consists  in  relentless  hatred  of  those  regarded  as 
strangers,  in  sleepless  suspicion  of  those  who  do  not 
worship  the  same  divinities.  The  pagans  of  all  times 
i  and  climes  do  not  believe  in  the  humanity  of  all  hu- 
man beings,  in  the  attributes  of  goodness  more  or 
less  common  to   all  men.     The  very  conception  of  hu- 


238  WHAT   WE    HAVE   TO    BE   THANKFUL    FOR. 

manity  embracing  all  the  families  of  the  earth,  the 
idea  of  the  spiritual  and  ethical  unity  of  mankind  is 
foreign  to  their  minds.  They  do  not  realize  the  su- 
preme truth,  taught  by  the  prophets,  that  all  men  are 
stamped  with  the  spiritual  likeness  of  God,  that  the 
divinity  of  reason  and  free  will  resides  in  all  souls, 
and  makes  all  the  children  of  men  of  one  kind.  The 
true  Israelite,  be  he  called  a  Jew  or  a  Christian,  has 
therefore  the  most  exalted  opinion  of  human  nature. 
He  venerates  in  every  man,  in  the  son  of  every  people 
and  race,  the  reflected  majesty  of  God.  He  cannot 
bring  himself  to  think  evil  of  any  man,  until  he  has 
amplest  proof  that  evil  is  habitually  and  wilfully  done 
by  him.  He  cannot  even  believe  in  the  total  depra- 
vity of  criminals,  seeing  that  the  degradation  of  any 
soul  implies  the  defeat  and  degradation  of  the  di- 
vine in  humanity.  The  true  worshipers  of  Jehovah, 
whether  they  call  themselves  followers  of  Moses  or  of 
Christ,  consider  it  rank  blasphemy  to  regard  any  class 
of  men,  whatever  their  racial  affinities,  their  religious 
beliefs  and  historical  affiliations,  as  devoid  of  the 
higher  qualities  and  ideal  aspirations  of  humanity. 
If  God  is  not  in  man,  then  He  is  nowhere.  If  His 
holy  will.  His  beneficence,  the  attributes  of  His  good- 
ness, fail  to  manifest  themselves  with  more  or  less 
vitalizing  energy  in  all  the  families  of  the  earth,  then 
He  is  not  the  all-pervading,  all-animating,  the  omni- 
present and  omnipotent  Spirit  of  all  mankind.  If 
any  people,  race  or  sect  is  left  without  His  grace.  His 
love  and  guidance,  then  we  believe  only  in  a  local 
God,  the  God  of  a  people,  of  a  race,  of  a  church,  and 
the  Deity  we  worship  is  not  different  from  the  local 
and  tribal  gods  adored  by  the  pagans  of  antiquity. 
To  assume]Jthat  the  Jews,  though  living  for  thousands 
of  years   under    discipline    and    laws   of    righteousness. 


WHAT   WE   HAVE   TO   BE   THANKFUL   FOR.  239 

though  in  closest  touch  with  the  spiritual  presence  and 
inspiring  example  of  God's  saints  and  martyrs,  are  yet 
a  materialistic,  ignoble  people ;  to  say  that  their  clan- 
nish heart  beats  with  sympathy  only  for  those  of  their 
own  race,  but  is  indifferent  to  the  welfare  of  all  other 
men,  is  tantamount  to  believing  that  divine  govern- 
ment is  a  sad  failure,  that  the  plans  of  Providence 
with  the  people  selected  to  work  out  the  elevation 
and  salvation  of  mankind,  have  shockingly  miscar- 
ried, that  the  educational  power  of  infinite  wisdom 
has  suffered  disastrous  defeat  just  where  it  strove  to 
achieve  its  greatest  moral  victory.  If  it  were  true, 
what  mediaeval  times  asserted,  and  is  being  re-echoed 
by  our  modern  cal.umniators,  if  the  fear  of  God  and 
the  love  of  mankind  were  absent  from  the  heart  of 
the  Jews,  if  ours  were  not  the  ways  of  righteousness, 
then  the  belief  in  a  universal  Power  and  Wisdom  un- 
folding Himself  in  the  soul  of  man  would  be  a  fic- 
tion, and  the  hope  in  final  victory  of  good  over  evil 
would   be   a  vain   dream ! 

In  fact,  the  mediseval  conception  of  God  and  di- 
vine government  was  thoroughly  heathenish  ;  and  the 
anti-Semitic  idea  of  Judaism  and  the  Jews  is  the 
most  emphatic  and  disgraceful  expression  of  the  pagan 
theory  of  the  world  and  of  man.  Jehovism  came  in- 
to the  world  as  the  deep-going  reaction  and  solemn 
protest  of  the  soul  of  mankind  against  the  pagan  idea, 
which  separates  man  from  the  fellowship  of  man, 
which  dooms  whole  sects,  whole  peoples  and  races  to 
moral  inferiority  by  an  alleged  ordinance  of  nature 
or  the  curse  of  angry  and  partial  divinity.  It  is  the 
historic  mission  of  the  champions  of  ethical  mono- 
theism or  Jehovism,  to  fight  in  the  thick  of  heaven's 
battle,  for  the  belief  in  the  spiritual  unity  of  all  the 
families    of    the   earth,   for    the   belief    in  the    godlike 


240      WHAT  WE  HAVE  TO  BE  THANKFUL  FOR. 

nature  of  all  the  children  of  God,  for  faith  in  the 
goodness  and  in  the  irrepressible  progress  of  the  race 
towards  justice,  love  and  truth.  We  who  have  for 
ages  been  smitten  with  the  scorpion  whips  of  con- 
tempt, we  are  called  to  preach  with  tongues  of  an- 
gels reverence  for  the  soul  of  the  least  of  men.  We 
who  have  through  the  long  and  dreary  night  tasted 
all  the  bitterness,  all  the  misery  caused  by  unjust 
suspicion  and  calumnious  misrepresentations,  are  com- 
missioned by  the  genius  of  mankind  to  teach  and 
practice  truth  unswerving,  justice  in  words  and  deeds, 
love  and  charity  towards  all  men.  We  Israelites 
have  suffered,  and  in  many  countries  still  suffer 
grievously,  but  ours  has  been  a  noble  suffering,  con- 
secrated as  it  is  to  the  greatest  of  all  causes,  to  the 
unity  of  God  and  the  unity  of  mankind,  to  faith  in 
a  God  of  infinite  love  and  faith  in  the  indestructible 
moral  dignity  of  man.  We  have  not  fought,  we  have 
not  suffered  and  bled  in  vain.  The  cause  of  God, 
the  cause  of  a  just  and  loving  humanity,  for  which 
we  have  for  a  thousand  years  stood  forth  in  the  ter- 
rible storm  of  obloquy,  of  malignant  prejudices,  of 
the  world's  hatred  and  contempt,  has  at  last  become 
victorious,  and  its  healing  and  redeeming  light  has 
risen  upon  mankind  like  the  sun  in  his  glory.  Let  us 
render  thanks  to  God  that  we  have  lived  to  see  the 
dawn  of  the  Lord  and  of  humanity.  We  have  lived 
to  reap  in  the  form  of  the  world's  respect,  confidence 
and  love  the  first-fruits  of  the  victory  of  Jehovism  over 
paganism,  of  the  spirit  of  justice  and  mercy  over  the 
cruel  spirit  of  separation  and  distrustful    hostility. 

Let  the  blackbirds  of  the  primaeval  night  still  croak 
their  hoarse  and  hideous  notes  of  distrust,  of  calumny, 
and  hatred  against  us.  The  best  part  of  the  world, 
the  noblest  men  and  women  of  our  time,  the  standard- 


WHAT   WE    HAVE    TO    BE   THANKFUL    FOR.  241 

bearers  of  the  light,  justice  and  progress  of  the  age,  do 
trust  us,  honor  and  love  us  as  brothers,  and  call  us 
fellow- champions  in  the  holy  war  of  good  against  evil. 
They  acknowledge  the  grievous  wrong  the  past  has 
done  to  our  character  and  name,  they  acknowledge  that 
we  are  like  them  servants  of  humanity,  that  we  have 
by  our  self-sacrifice  helped  to  preserve  to  the  world  its 
spiritual  treasures  and  are  contributing  our  share  to- 
ward redeeming  the  world  from  the  evils  of  heathenish 
ideas  and  practices.  Our  fate,  our  honor,  our  happiness 
are  bound  up  with  the  moral  progress  of  mankind.  We 
are  the  witnesses  of  the  growing  spirit  of  divine  love 
and  justice  in  man.  The  measure  of  esteem  in  which 
we  are  held,  the  measure  of  love  accorded  to  us,  is  the  ; 
measure  of  a  nation's  moral  worth,  is  the  sure  indica- 
tion of  a  people's  rise  or  fall  in  the  scale  of  humanity.; 
The  Israelites  of  every  country  are  the  infallible  ther-i 
mometers  of  that  country's  civilization.  Let  a  people 
begin  to  degenerate  morally,  and  the  first  symptoms  of 
that  degeneracy  will  show  themselves  in  prejudice  and 
ill-will  against  the  Jews.  Let  the  humanitarian  forces 
of  liberty,  justice  and  equity  stir  a  nation's  breast  with 
might,  and  among  the  first  results  of  a  quickened 
higher  life  there  will  manifest  itself  an  eager  desire  to 
deal  with  the  Jews  in  a  spirit  of  righteousness,  to  ac- 
cord to  them  equal  rights,  to  regard  them  as  brothers 
and  fellow-patriots.  Whatever  precious  gains  the  ad- 
herents of  Jehovism  have  made  within  the  last  hun- 
dred years  are  due  to  the  moral  progress  of  the  world, 
to  the  growing  powers  of  humanity.  The  tree  of  higher 
humanity  is  our  tree  of  life.  On  its  fruits  we  depend 
for  maintenance  and  sustenance.  The  more  numerous 
and  the  more  perfect  the  fruits  of  wisdom,  of  godliness, 
of  justice  and  love,  which  the  tree  of  humanity  ripens, 
the  safer,  the  richer  and  happier  becomes  the  life  of  us 


242  WPTAT   WE    HAVE   TO    BE   THANKFUL   FOR. 

Yahvists,  the  more  vigorous  and  fruitful  is  our  own 
spiritual  and  moral  vitality.  Wherever  an<]  whenever 
the  tree  of  humanity,  planted  by  the  hand  of  Jehovah's 
seers  and  messengers  by  the  living  waters  of  righteous- 
ness, happens  to  be  smitten  with  barrenness,  a  blight 
at  once  falls  upon  us,  we  are  the  first  to  suffer  from 
the  effects  of  the  spiritual  famine  in  the  land.  We  are 
the  historical  representatives  and  standard-bearers  of 
the  church  of  Jehovism,  have  been  providentially  ap- 
pointed to  be  among  the  chief  guardians  and  cultivat- 
ors  of  the   tree   of  humanity. 

This  is  our  mission  and  our  glory.  We  ought  to  be 
thankful  for  being  charged  with  such  a  high  and 
universal  mission.  We  may  well  be  proud  of  the  fact, 
that  by  spiritual  succession  and  by  the  inexorable  nec- 
essity of  our  situation,  we  are  compelled  to  be  cham- 
pions of  moral,  social,  intellectual  and  economical 
emancipation  and  advancement.  The  Israelite  is  bound 
to  belong  to  the  army  of  progress,  for  the  hosts  of 
retrogression  are  his  personal  and  relentless  foes. 
Woe  to  him,  if  in  supine  indifference  to  the  general 
good,  he  allows  the  reactionary  forces,  which  never 
sleep  nor  slumber,  to  make  headway  and  gain  the  up- 
per hand.  Before  he  is  aware  of  it,  while  he  deems 
himself  as  secure  as  any  part  of  the  people,  the  un- 
godly pagan  powers  rush  at  him  with  demon  fury 
and  try  to  trample  him  under  foot.  Whether  they 
know  it  or  not,  whether  they  will  it  or  not,  the  mem- 
bers of  the  church  of  Jehovah  are  the  banner-bearers 
of  progressive  humanity.  Around  them  rages  the  bat- 
tle of  paganism  against  Jehovism,  of  race  against 
humanity,  of  oppression  against  freedom,  of  narrow 
selfishness  against  all-embracing  love.  Let  the  banner- 
bearers  fight  with  indomitable  courage,  let  them  ex- 
pose their   breast   to   the   poisoned  arrows   of  hate   and 


WHAT   WE    HAVE    TO    BE   THANKFUL    FOR.  243 

prejudice.  For  they  are  fighting  the  battle  of  God, 
the  battle  of  mankind  for  spiritual  freedom,  for  right 
and  equity.  It  is  a  high  privilege  to  know  ourselves 
and  our  interest  is  to  be  identical  with  the  godward 
advancement  of  mankind,  with  the  highest  and  holiest 
interests   of  the   human   race. 

By  a  decree  of  the  genius  of  history  we  are  forced 
to  stand  as  knights  of  the  spirit  around  the  fiery 
chariot  of  progress.  We  advance  when  it  advances ;  we 
halt  when  it  halts ;  we  retrograde  when  it  goes  back- 
ward. We  will  not,  we  dare  not,  we  cannot  abandon 
the  post  of  honor  and  danger  assigned  to  us  by  our 
religion.  We  occupy  the  most  exposed,  the  most  dif- 
ficult, but  almost  the  most  honorable  position  in  the 
spiritual  battles  of  humanity.  For  Jehovism  is  the 
church  militant  of  humanity,  fighting  with  the  in- 
vincible arms  of  justice,  mercy  and  truth.  It  is  wag- 
ing perennial  war  against  the  spirit  of  hate  and  injus- 
tice, against  the  wicked  powers  attempting  to  separate 
man  from  his  brother  man  according  to  race,  nation- 
ality and  creed.  Jehovism  is  nothing  but  the  eternal 
battle  of  the  powers  of  light  against  the  powers  of 
darkness,  the  battle  of  peace  and  righteousness  against 
the  demons  of  inhumanity.  It  is  not  by  the  accident 
of  our  birth,  but  by  spiritual  succession  and  free  choice 
that  we  are  life-long  devoted  champions  of  the  church 
universal  of  Jehovism.  It  is  not  by  virtue  of  our 
blood,  which  heaven  knows  has  flowed  together  from 
all  possible  sources,  but  by  the  indissoluble  bonds  of 
sacred  memories,  by  the  identity  of  beliefs,  principles 
and  ideals,  that  we  are  the  inheritors  of  the  burdens 
and  duties,  of  the  struggles,  sorrows,  joys  and  glories 
of  the  missionary  people  of  moral  monotheism. 


JUDAISM   AND   THE   CONGRESS   OF 
LIBERAL  RELIGIOUS  SOCIETIES. 


HELD   AT    SINAI   TEMPLE,     CHICAGO,   JUNE   4,    1895. 
AN   ADDRESS    BY    RABBI   JOSEPH    STOLZ. 


The  American  Congress  of  Liberal  Religions  is  but 
another  denomination  added  to  the  one  hundred  and 
fifty  that  already  grace  and  disgrace  our  country  -is 
the  charge  repeatedly  made  by  those  whose  love  for 
this  child  cradled  a  year  ago  in  Sinai  Temple  is  like 
the  love  of  the  spurious  mother  in  Solomon's  famous 
judgment — so  great  that  ere  yet  the  infant  was  out  of 
its  swaddling  clothes  they  would  have  it  cut  in  twain 
that  "it  be  neither  mine   nor   thine." 

I  stand  here  to-night,  on  behalf  of  the  oldest  of 
the  historical  religions  here  represented,  to  pronounce 
a  vigorous  and  emphatic  protest  against  this  charge, 
and  to  give  public  testimony  that  I  am  here  as  a  Jew 
and  that  I  not  only  have  no  thought  of  affiliating 
with  a  new  denomination  but  that  I  never  feel  myself 
so  much  a  Jew,  never  am  so  proud  of  being  a  Jew 
and  never  so  determined  to  remain  a  Jew,  as  when 
I  contemplate  the  aims  and  workings  of  this  American 
Congress  of  Liberal  Religions,  a  Messiah  of  the  Jews. 
I  do  not  come  here  in  search  of  a  freer  platform — 
in  my  pulpit  I  have  all  the  liberty  of  thought  and 
freedom   of  expression   I   crave  for. 

(^44) 


LIBERAL   RELIGIOUS  SOCIETIES.  245 

1  do  not  come  here  to  be  delivered  from  the  thral- 
dom of  sectarianism,  and  emancipated  from  the  slavery 
of  creed.  We  have  no  sects.  Liberal  or  orthodox,  we 
are  all  Jews.  We  unite  in  good  works  and  neither 
hate  each  other,  oppose  each  other,  nor  condemn  each 
other  to  the  Sheol  whose  temperature,  if  this  has 
been  a  sample  the  last  few  days,  is  so  uncongenial,  at 
least  to  Chicagoans.  The  Jew  has  no  hard  and  fixed 
creed  to  which  he  must  swear  allegiance.  Within 
and  without  the  synagogue  he  is  granted  the  utmost 
freedom  of  thought.  He  is  responsible  for  his  views 
to  no  synod  and  no  general  assembly.  He  knows  no 
heresy  trials.  The  excommunication  of  Spinoza  was 
un- Jewish.  It  was  the  act  of  Spanish  Jews  who  sought 
refuge  in  Amsterdam  from  the  terrors  of  the  Inquisi- 
tion, and  then  adopted  the  very  methods  of  the  Catho- 
lic Inquisition  when  they  got  the  power  in  their 
hands — as  it  so  often  happens  that  the  persecuted 
turn   persecutors. 

I  do  not  come  here  to  learn  that  righteousness  and 
duty  are  more  important  than  rituals,  ceremonies,  sym- 
bols and  metaphysical  formulae.  With  the  flame  of 
God  in  their  souls  and  the  fire  of  eloquence  on  their 
lips,  our  prophets  again  and  anon  proclaimed  this  truth 
and  the  whole  of  Jewish  literature  teems  with  it. 

Nor  have  I  come  here  to  learn  of  universal  religion. 
The  vision  of  one  God,  one  humanity  and  one  religion 
has  always  inspired  the  Jews.  Even  in  the  days  of 
darkest  persecution  they  fed  on  this  dream.  They 
read  it  in  their  Bible,  they  put  it  in  their  daily  prayers, 
they  taught  it  in  their  schools;  upon  the  doorway  of 
their  synagogues  they  carved  the  inscription,  "My  house 
shall  be  a  house  of  prayer  for  all  nations." 

The  truth  of  the  matter  is  you  are  receiving  such  a 
hospitable  reception   in   this    temple,    so   many   Jewish 


246  JUDAISM   AND   THE^CONGRESS   OF 

congregations  have  affiliated  with  you,  nearly  every 
rabbi  in  this  country  has  transmitted  to  you  a  message 
of  sympathy,  and  the  Central  Conference  of  American 
Rabbis  has  sent  hither  its  delegates— not  because  they 
would  cease  to  be  Jews,  but  because  they  are  Jews,  not 
because  they  crave  for  a  new  denomination,  but  because 
they  would  co-operate  with  all  those  whose  aim  it  is  to 
direct  and  utilize  the  liberal  thought  of  our  country. 

Ours  is  the  age  of  free  thought.  It  asserts  itself  in 
literature,  art,  music,  philosophy  and  politics  no  less 
than  in  religion.  Men  will  not  in  our  day  and  in  our 
country  be  trammeled  by  tradition,  and  there  is  every- 
where a  strong  undercurrent  of  liberalism.  In  the 
large  cities  it  is  in  the  air,  and  even  in  the  smallest 
villages,  far  away  from  the  centers  of  thought  and  the 
highways  of  civilization,  you  will  find  men  and  women 
wdth  a  mighty  consciousness  that  they  have  outgrown 
the  old  thought.  This  liberalism  generally  seeks  one 
of  three  channels :  either  it  loses  itself  in  mysticism,  as 
is  evidenced  by  the  many  new  mystical  sects  of  our 
day,  like  Christian  Science,  Occultism,  Theosophy, 
Spiritualism;  or,  through  a  misunderstanding  of  what 
the  real  nature  of  religion  is,  it  deserts  the  churches 
altogether  and  robs  them  of  some  of  the  best  minds 
and  hearts  of  the  community;  or  it  degenerates  into 
rank  materialism,  secularism  or  agnosticism. 

Now  then  comes  this  Congress,  not  to  bury  any  ex- 
isting denomination,  or  in  any  wise  to  limit  its  par- 
ticular sphere  of  activity,  but,  backed  by  the  authority  of 
Unitarians,  Universalists,  Independents,  Ethical  Cultur- 
ists,  Jews  and  all  other  liberal  bodies,  to  speak  for  all 
of  them  with  a  voice  so  strong,  a  conviction  so  deep 
and  an  enthusiasm  so  intense  that  together  they  will 
exert  an  influence  and  make  an  impression  beyond 
the  power  of  any   one  of  them  individually. 


LIBERAL   RELIGIOUS   SOCIETIES.  247 

This  Congress  is  the  prophet  of  our  day  crying 
into  the  wilderness  that  rehgion  is  not  based  upon 
superstition  nor  built  upon  selfishness,  that  it  is  not 
the  product  of  priestcraft  nor  the  fruit  of  mental  ser- 
vility, but  is  a  part  of  man  as  much  as  conscience,  r^^ 
reason,  will  and  love  are,  and  will  exist  as  long  as 
man  will  exist.  Let  all  the  Bibles  in  the  world  be 
destroyed  and  all  the  churches  be  demolished  and  all 
the  priesthoods  be  secularized,  as  long  as  human  be- 
ings are  left,  there  will  be  religion  ;  and  new  houses 
of  worship  will  be  erected,  new  Bibles  will  be  written 
and  new  men  will  arise  to  be  the  religious  guides  and 
teachers. 

This  Congress  is  the  prophet  of  our  age  proclaiming 
to  them  who  have  been  enticed  away  by  the  wonderful  o 
achievements  of  science  that  religion  and  science  are  not  • 
in  conflict.  God's  handwriting  in  nature  cannot  contra- 
dict God's  handwriting  on  the  human  soul;  and  the 
truth  is  that  science  requires  religion  for  its  comple- 
tion just   as   much   as   religion   ever  requires  science. 

This  Congress  is  the  prophet  announcing  to  those 
who  interpret  liberalism  to  mean  negation  and  who 
revel  in  their  skepticism  or  materialism,  what  a  terrible 
thing  life  would  be  if  religion  were  not  the  dominant 
power  in  the  community;  if  men  all  believed  that  the 
universe  was  the  result  of  chance  and  all  things  were 
not  working  together  toward  a  reasonable,  loving  and 
just  end ;  if  men  all  thought  that  the  moral  law  was 
not  something  immutable,  eternal,  divine  ;  and  if  men 
all  acted  as  if  the  individual  perished  and  the  race  did 
not  endure  and  our  conduct  was  determined  for  us  by 
the  unthinking  forces  round  about,  and  whatever  we 
might  do  had  no  influence  upon  the  remoter  destinies 
of  mankind,  because  we  were  only  some  carbon,  oxygen, 
hydrogen  and  nitrogen  sojourning  here  three  score  years 


248  Judaism  and  the  congress  op 

and  ten,  a  tiny,  impotent  speck  on  this  immense  uni- 
verse, a  passing  shadow  here,  food  for  the  worms  when 
we  pass  away. 

This  Congress  is  the  prophet  to  emphasize  the  fact 
that,  because  there  must  be  diversity  in  rehgion  and 
we  cannot  all  have  the  same  history,  bear  the  same 
label,  use  the  same  forms,  worship  on  the  same  day, 
utter  the  same  prayers  and  have  the  same  ideas,  for 
that  reason  we  must  not  idolize  our  own  particular 
forms  and  fail  to  find  a  virtue  in  any  others ;  we 
must  not  look  for  the  truth  only  in  our  own  little 
church  and  have  nothing  but  hatred  in  our  hearts 
for  all  other  churches;  we  must  not  be  so  jealous  of 
our  own  little  history  that  we  cannot  rejoice  when 
some  other  denomination  realizes  the  very  ideals  we 
cherish ;  we  must  not  be  so  fearful  of  the  fate  of 
our  little  denomination  that  we  pull  down  the  blinds 
and  fasten  the  shutters  and  bolt  the  doors  and  build 
a  high  wall  around  ourselves  lest  some  light  come 
in  and  a  heretic  go  out;  we  must  not  be  so  blind 
in  the  worship  of  our  creed  that  we  cannot  see  the 
universal  truths  underlying  all  religion  and  cannot 
work  shoulder  to  shoulder  and  heart  to  heart  and  soul 
to  soul  for  their  wider  acceptance  and  truer  realization 
in  life. 

This  Congress  is  to  give  our  convictions  the  strength 
of  numbers  and  the  force  of  united  effort.  By  stand- 
ing alone  we  have  been  dissipating  our  energy  and  de- 
priving every  community  of  our  full  and  just  contri- 
bution to  its  better  thought  and  higher  life.  By  be- 
ing unorganized  we  have  not  mustered  anything  like 
our  best  forces  against  the  fanaticism  and  intolerance 
or  against  the  infidelity  and  materialism  of  the  land. 
The  liberals  need  organization  and  they  need  the 
enthusiasm   which  can  make  a   sacrifice. 


LIBERAL   RELIGIOUS    SOCIETIES.  ^49 

It  is  just  eight  hundred  years  since  Pope  Urban  II. 
preached  the  first  crusade  at  Cleremont,  France.  His 
passionate  words  aroused  the  enthusiasm  of  the  crowd ; 
with  unanimity  they  declared  themselves  ready  to 
make  the  sacrifice;  the  contagion  spread;  all  classes  of 
society, — nobles,  priests,  citizens,  peasants  and  kings, — 
all  were  animated  with  the  same  idea  and  abandoned 
themselves  to  the  same  impulse.  It  was  the  first  time 
that  the  countries  of  Europe — France,  Germany,  Italy, 
Spain  and  England — acted  together  in  a  common 
cause.  It  was  the  first  time  that  any  one  of  these 
nations  found  all  its  inhabitants  united  in  one  com- 
mon purpose.  That  is  the  result  of  a  great  idea 
taken  up   with  enthusiasm. 

Of  course,  the  time  was  just  ripe  for  those  crusades. 
But  I  believe  the  time  is  just  as  ripe  for  this  Con- 
gress; and  if  this  week  we  were  to  take  up  this  cause 
in  Chicago  with  the  same  enthusiasm  and  sincerity 
and  self-sacrifice  as  did  those  men  at  Cleremont  who 
with  unanimity  exclaimed,  "God  willeth  it,  God 
willeth  it,"— a  triumph  would  be  ours  in  this  land 
that  would  open  the  eyes  of  the  most  sanguine 
prophets   and   priests  of  the   movement. 


REFORM      JUDAISM       AND      LIBERAL 
CHRISTIANITY. 


BY   RABBI    MOSES   J.    GRIES,    ERIE,    PA. 


A  little  more  than  one  year  ago,  the  Parliament  of 
Religions  convened  in  the  city  of  Chicago.  To  thought- 
ful students  of  the  history  of  the  race,  the  day  marks 
the  beginning  of  a  new  epoch.  The  Parliament  was 
not  a  church  council.  It  was  dominated  by  no  ecclesi- 
astical ruler.  It  promulgated  no  new  decrees.  It  was 
a  human  fello-wship  meeting.  It  was  dominated  by 
the  rule  of  love.  It  proclaimed  to  all  mankind,  the 
ringing  message  that  love  of  God  does  not  mean  the 
hate  of  man. 

I  know  not  whether  it  was  accident  or  design,  but 
Judaism  held  the  first  of  the  Religious  Congresses;  and 
the  Parliament  began  its  sessions  on  the  evening  of 
the  Jewish  New  Year,  and  at  the  Mid-Winter  Fair,  the 
lesser  Parliament  began  on  the  Jewish  Passover  and 
the  first  Congress  of  Liberal  Religious  Societies  met  in 
a  Jewish  temple.  To  you,  these  things  may  mean 
nothing.  To  me,  a  representative  of  Judaism,  they 
mean  much.  These  things  can  be  symbolical.  Jewish 
tradition  has  it  that  the  world  was  created  on  the  New 
Year's  Day.  To  me,  it  seems  as  though  in  the  year 
5654,  according   to   the   Bible   chronology    (1893  of  our 


REFORM   JUDAISM   AND   LIBERAL    CHRISTIANITY.        251 

common  era),  there  was  a  new  creation.  The  old  man- 
kind, full  of  hate  and  standing  apart,  perished  and  the 
new  creation  was  begun.  We  have  a  Jewish  legend, 
that  in  the  beginning  God  created  but  one  man.  Man, 
one,  neither  Jew  nor  Gentile  nor  heathen — but  simply 
man,  child  of  God.  And  Scripture  tells  us  God  formed 
man  out  of  the  dust  of  the  earth.  How  beautiful  is 
the  thought  of  our  legend,  that  from  every  land,  from 
countries  far  and  near,  from  this  side  and  the  other 
side  of  the  great  waters  came  the  birds  of  heaven, 
bearing  each  in  its  bill  a  grain  of  dust,  and  a  man  was 
made,  in  the  beginning,  universal,  formed  out  of  the 
dust  of  all  the  earth. 

In  the  beginning  was  God  and  the  first  of  our  race 
was  the  child  of  God,  and  so  are  we  all  the  children 
of  God,  one  family,  one  human  brotherhood.  Let  that 
Parliament,  which  gathered  its  representatives  from  all 
the  earth,  on  the  traditional  Creation-eve  proclaim  to 
you,  as  it  does  to  me,  the  formation  of  the  one  man, 
child  of  a  Common  Father,  member  of  the  universal 
human  brotherhood! 

And  the  historic  Jewish  Passover  is  the  feast  of 
Liberty.  Then  was  Israel  redeemed  from  the  bondage 
of  Egypt !  It  was  the  first  emancipation-proclamation, 
declaring  one  man  shall  not  be  master  and  his  brother 
slave !  Equal  are  men  in  the  sight  of  God !  Man 
shall  not  hate,  persecute,  oppress  his  brother,  with 
rigorous  burdens  upon  the  flesh  nor  open  the  spirit. 
No  creature  of  God  was  blessed  with  life,  to  be 
shackled  and  enslaved.  Every  man  shall  be  free. 
Every  man  ought  to  be  equal, — free  and  equal  in  life's 
opportunities.  Let  the  mid-winter  Parliament,  conven- 
ing on  the  eve  of  the  Festival  of  Liberty,  proclaim  to 
you  as  it  does  to  me,  freedom  unto  all  God's  creatures, 
because  they    are  the  creatures   of   God,  a  human  fel- 


^52         REFORM   JUDAISM   ANt)   LIBERAL   CHRISTIANITY. 

lowahip  of  love,  and  not  of  hate,  of  upliftment  and 
not  oppression  of  the  fallen,  of  redemption  and  not  of 
punishment  of  the  outcast — a  united  human  fellow- 
ship for  helpful  human  service,  and  that  Jewish  Con- 
gress first  of  all  congresses  and  that  meeting  of  Lib- 
eral Christian  Societies  in  a  Jewish  temple  are  not 
without  deeper  meaning.  Then  and  thereby,  in  the 
sight  of  all  mankind,  did  old  and  hoary-headed  Juda- 
ism give  testimony  that  though  the  burden  of  cen- 
turies rested  upon  its  shoulders,  it  was  not  bowed 
with  the  weight  of  age  but  that  erect  it  stood 
among  the  nations,  strong  with  the  vigor  and  burning 
with  the  fire  of  perpetual  youth.  Judaism,  old,  yet 
eternally  young,  a  living  force  among  the  living !  In 
the  beginning  was  it  a  religion  to  shape  the  life  of  a 
nation — a  faith  to  be  lived.  In  the  end,  it  is  still  a 
religion  of  life  unto  the  living.  Its  emphasis  is  not 
upon  belief.  Right  living  is  the  essential.  Let  the 
Liberal  Religious  Congress,  finding  birth  in  a  Jewish 
temple,  proclaim  to  you,  as  it  does  to  me,  that  Juda- 
ism, inheritor  of  the  Law,  bearer  of  the  prophetic 
message,   lives  and   will  live. 

Friends,  I  am  here  to  bring  you  greeting.  The  old 
mother  of  religions  salutes  you !  Flesh  of  her  flesh, 
spirit  of  her  spirit,  though  not  altogether  thought  of  her 
thought,  I  come  speaking  peace  and  good  will.  I  will 
not  magnify  disagreements.  With  joyful  heart  do  I 
emphasize  agreements.  Your  pastor  has  asked  me  to 
speak  my  thoughts  freely  and  I  hesitate  not,  assured 
that  I  am  a  friend  among  friends,  a  man  among  men, 
all  of  us  seeking  the  light  and  the  truth  and  the  way. 

I  have  little  sympathy  with  that  prevalent  indifference, 
Jewish  and  Christian,  which  makes  light  of  all  disa- 
greements, which  masking  itself  under  the  cloak  of  lib- 
eralism  is  false    liberalism,   laxity,    license    in   religious 


REFORM    JUDAISM    AND    LIBERAL   CHRISTIANITY.         253 

faith  and  practice,  truer  child  of  thoughtless  convien- 
ence  than  of  thinking  conviction.  I  do  not  feel  in- 
clined, for  the  sake  of  the  pleasure  it  may  give  the 
unthinking  to  slur  over,  to  conceal  disagreements.  Be- 
tween Judaism  and  Christianity  there  are  fundamental 
differences.  Reform  Judaism  and  Liberal  Christianity 
have  but  draAvn  near,  one  to  the  other,  but  the  chasm 
is   unbridged. 

What  does  Judaism,  what  does  Christianity  teach 
regarding  man  and  his  life  on  earth?  Christianity  de- 
clares "  man  born  in  sin,  a  creature  fallen  from  grace. 
He  needs  salvation !  He  cannot  redeem  himself !  A 
mediator  stands  between  him  and  his  God.  There  is 
but  one  i:>ath  of  salvation."  "  He  that  believeth  shall 
be  saved,  but  he  that  believeth  not  shall  be  damned." 
(Luke  xvi,  16.)  Judaism  declares  "  man  a  God-creature,' 
fashioned  in  the  image  divine  and  sent  upon  earth  to 
accomplish  a  divine  purpose.  He  is  a  child  of  God, 
destined  to  live  a  god-like  life.  He  is  not  a  perfect 
nor  a  sinless  creature.  But  salvation  reaches  him  by 
no  process  of  faith  nor  by  the  help  of  a  mediator.  He 
must  save  himself"  Man  does  not  lie  prostrate  in  the 
dust,  cringing,  fearing,  trembling  before  his  God,  He 
stands  erect  and  turns  his  face  to  see  his  Maker.  The 
Christian  prays.  Lead  me  not  into  temptation,  and  the 
Jew,  were  he  to  write  the  Lord's  Prayer  as  his  fathers 
had  the  thought,  would  ask  for  strength  to  meet  temp- 
tation and  conquer  it.  Temptation  comes  to  all,  the 
weak  fall  and  are  swept  away,  the  strong  standing 
upon  the  rock  of  righteousness  cannot  be  moved. 
Christianity  offers  salvation  unto  all  men.  In  this  it 
is  universal,  but  it  insists  upon  the  one  path  and  there- 
by it  makes  itself  less  than  universal.  It  still  clings 
to  the  last  remnant  of  its  creed.  "  Believe  in  a  fallen 
world  and  Jesus  as  the  Redeemer,"     I   like  your   nam^ 


254         REFORM   JUDAISM    AND   LIBERAL   CHRISTIANITY. 

Universalism— it  is  not  narrow.  It  seems  broad — all- 
mankind-inclusive.  But  I  would  welcome  the  fact  more 
than  the  name — a  universalism  in  truth,  with  no  bar- 
rier to  the  gate  of  Heaven,  with  more  than  one  path 
leading  to  salvation's  portals,  a  universalism  also  on 
earth,  on  this  side  of  the  grave,  in  life,  and  not  only 
after  death,  above.  Judaism  in  its  doctrines  of  salva- 
tion approaches  a  true  universalism.  All  may  en- 
ter into  the  covenant  of  God — redemption  is  unto  all 
the  righteous,  Jew  and  non-Jew,  believing  and  unbe- 
lieving. In  the  prayer  in  memory  of  the  dead,  a 
prayer  of  sanctification  unto  God,  expression  of  mourn- 
ing hearts  trusting  in  God,  prayed  daily  in  synagogues 
and  temples,  we  reverently  ask  ''may  the  Lord  of 
heaven  and  earth  grant  eternal  peace  and  a  full  par- 
ticipation in  the  bliss  of  eternal  life,  grace  and  mercy 
to  Israel,  to  all  the  righteous  and  to  all  who  departed 
this  life  by  the  will  of  God."  Faith  does  not  save. 
Conduct  and  character  make  for  salvation.  As  spoke 
the  Psalmist.  ''This  is  the  gate  of  the  Lord,  the  right- 
eous  enter  into  it." 

I  know  that  Judaism  is  supposed  to  be  narrow, , 
provincial,  tribal,  national,  racial  and  I  know  also  that' 
Judaism  in  its  essential  teachings  is  truly  universal. 
Many  were  the  laws  made  for  Palestine,  for  the  Isra- 
elitish  nation  for  worship  while  the  temple  stood  in 
its  glory.  They  were,  but  they  are  not!  The  temple 
is  in  ruins,  the  nation  has  ceased  to  be.  Palestine  is 
under  the  rule  of  the  Moslem.  Though  some  Jewish 
hearts  may  mourn  for  Jewish  greatness  and  sorrow,  not 
to  have  seen  the  glory  of  God's  house  and  cherish  a 
longing  for  national  power  and  dominion,  we,  I  speak 
not  for  myself  alone,  but  for  the  million  Jews  dwelling 
in  lands  of  freedom,  seek  and  desire  not  a  restoration 
of  the  kingdom,  nor  a   re-building  of  the  temple.     We 


REFORM   JUDAISM   AND   LIBERAL   CHRISTIANITY.         255 

rejoice  that  we  are  here ;  Israel's  face  is  turned  to  the 
west  and  not  to  the  east.  God's  blessing  is  upon  all 
the  earth.  This  is  His  holy  land;  the  God  of  Israel 
has  sent  His  people  unto  all  lands  and  unto  all  na- 
tions. His  people  chosen  not  for  blessings  but  for 
service,  that  in  them  all  families  of  the  earth  shall  be  ^ 
blest.  Our  fathers  have  obeyed  the  Scriptural  com- 
mand. Get  thee  out  of  thy  country,  out  of  thy  birth- 
place and  out  of  thy  father's  house.  (Gen.  xii,  1.)  The 
national,  the  provincial,  the  temporal  are  behind  us. 
Laws  and  customs  and  institutions  of  the  old  time 
may  still  appear  in  our  midst.  But  gradually  the 
body  of  our  religion  is  conforming  itself  to  its  spirit. 
Our  teachings  and  our  thoughts  are  universal.  Their 
expression   soon  will   be. 

Judaism  is  misunderstood  and  misjudged.  It  has 
been  long  in  the  world,  but  is  little  known  of  men. 
How  many  are  there  who  esteem  it  an  antiquated 
faith,  an  outworn  religion,  a  curious  relic  strangely 
preserved,  a  religion  in  the  midst  of  life,  but  dead ! 
It  is  thought  that  the  Jew  completed  life's  task 
eighteen  hundred  years  ago.  Israel  lived  only  to  pro- 
duce a  Redeemer ;  Judaism  to  give  birth  to  Chris- 
tianity !  It  is  taken  for  granted  that  Christianity  is 
something  higher  than  Judaism  ever  was  or  is.  Chris- 
tianity regards  the  Jew  as  a  living  testimony  to  the 
events  of  eighteen  centuries  ago.  It  awaits  his  accept- 
ance of  the  Savior  whom  the  fathers  rejected.  There 
are  those  who  make  bold  to  send  us  missionaries  to 
convert  us  to  the  true  faith  and  they  wonder  why  we 
Jews  do  not  lay  aside  the  old  distinction  and  become 
Christians.  A  few  Jews  may  become  Christians  for 
revenue  only,  and  a  few  may  wear  the  Christian  cloak 
to  win  worldly  privilege  and  honor;  but  Jews  and 
Judaism  cannot  and  will  not  cease   to   be  until  the  re- 


256         REFORM   JUDAISM   AND   LIBERAL   CHRISTIANITY. 

ligions   of    mankind   are   representative   of  the  broadest 
in  thought  and  the   highest   in   life,  until  they   become 
all-mankind-inclusive !     Let    the    denominational    name- 
stand,    it  must    stand   until   there  can   be   a   fellowship 
true  enough   to  ask   surrender   of  no  truth. 

Ought  not  Judaism  to  yield?  Its  adherents  are  but 
few  in  number.  Ought  they  not  to  surrender?  Abra- 
ham was  one  God-believer  in  a  heathen  world.  To-day 
"God  is  One  and  His  name  One "  in  all  civilized 
lands.  Palestine  and  Greece  were  small  countries.  To- 
day, Greece  and  Judea  are  little  more  than  provinces, 
but  by  the  might  of  mighty  spirit,  they  rule  all  man- 
kind in  culture  and  in  conduct.  Judaism  hopes  not 
for  a  physical  triumph  and  seeks  it  not.  The  Jew 
dreams  not  of  dominion  world-embracing.  The  seed 
of  Abraham,  the  descendants  of  Judah  are  not  to  con- 
quer ;  but  we  have  trust  that  truth  will  conquer  the 
truth  of  the  patriarch,  of  the  lawgiver  and  the 
prophets. 

The  prophets  proclaimed  one  God  over  all — a  Di- 
vine Unity  making  necessary  a  human  unity.  Reform 
Judaism  lives  in  the  spirit  of  the  prophetic  teachings. 
It  overleaps  and  breaks  through  and  is  destroying  all 
the  barriers  which  past  generations  in  self-defense 
erected  to  divide  man  from  man.  The  separating 
walls  are  down,  can  we  not  clasp  hands?  "Have  we 
not  one  Father?"  (Mai.  ii,  10.)  Are  we  not  God- 
children?    Why   stand   we  lipart? 

When  freedom  and  justKjg,  s1t9,11  be,  when  tyranny 
and  oppression  are  no  itiore,  when  love  shall  bind 
where  hate  now  severs,  when  men  will  know  them- 
selves God-children,  all,  then,  Jew  and  Christian,  need 
be  no  more.  We,  Liberal  Christianity  and  Reform  Ju- 
daism, are  preparing  the  way.  We  have  overleaped 
and    broken    through    and    destroyed    behind    us,    the 


REFORM   JUDAISM   AND   LIBERAL   CHRISTIANITY.         257 

narrow  walls  that  hemmed  us  in.  We  are  the  lead- 
ers. We  may  stand  far  in  advance  but  all  the  world 
follow   behind. 

Our  religion  is  not  a  new  creation  nor  a  new  discov- 
ery, and  certainly  not  one  of  the  modern  improvements. 
We  have  but  returned  to  the  teachings  of  our  first 
great  masters— you  to  the  man  of  Nazareth,  we  to  our 
rabbins  and  prophets  and  law-givers.  The  orthodox 
may  declare  us  of  the  unfaithful.  "You  are  not  true 
Christians,  we  are  not  true  Jews. "  The  law-giver 
and  the  prophets,  the  Nazarene  and  the  Apostles  would 
not  be  faithful  to  the  religions  they  founded,  as  some 
judge  the  truly  faithful.  Orthodoxy  has  divided  man- 
kind and  liberalism  is  seeking  to  unite.  We  have  suf- 
fered and  suffer  now  from  too  much  denominationalism, 
wasteful  individualism  of  effort,  from  senseless  disunion 
of  forces.  Selfish  individual  effort  is  the  doctrine  of  a 
past  age.  Co-operation  we  need  and  want.  If  funda- 
mental difference  compels  us  to  live  apart,  it  is  well. 
The  few  fighting  for  principle  and  conviction  to  guard 
the  truth,  are  heroic.  But  we  have  been  too  fearful 
for  the  truth.  Felix  Adler  has  well  said  it:  "Truth 
can  take  care  of  itself."  Our  duty  is  to  man.  We  were 
men  before  we  were  Jews  or  Christians  or  Mohamme- 
dans or  Buddhists.  God-children  were  we  in  the  begin- 
ning. Let  us  be  God-children  now !  Let  us  do  worthy 
service  unto  God. 

Let  there  be  a  union  of  all  Liberals !  not  one  creed — 
not  one  church  doctrine!  One  theology,  one  philoso- 
phy, one  religion  will  not  and  cannot  be;  but  there 
can  be  one  work  to  do — one  service  to  fulfil!  Let  lib- 
eralism stand  united  in  the  city  and  state  and  nation, 
united  everywhere,  as  the  enemy  of  bigoted  intolerance, 
as  the  champion  and  defender  of  the  liberties  of  man, 
civil    and  religious.      Let    liberalism    everywhere   be   a 


258         REFORM    JUDAISM   AND   LIBERAL   CHRISTIANITY. 

force  strong  by  union,  making  for  human  upliftment. 
Let  it  sound  the  call  to  a  higher  life  and  a  broader 
human  fellowship.  Then  are  you  true  Christians ! 
Then  are  we  true  Jews !  Then  are  Jews  and  Christians 
true  men! 


JEWISH  THEOLOGY. 


BY    REV.    DR.    JOSEPH     SILVERMAN,      OF     TEMPLE     EMANU-EL, 
NEW   YORK. 


The  world  is  in  dread  of  theology.  To  most  men 
the  sole  functions  of  theology  seem  to  be  the  enslave- 
ment of  the  mind  and  the  oppression  of  those  who 
refuse  to  submit  to  such  mental  thralldom.  Theology 
seems  to  be  master  and  persecutor,  tyrant  and  execu- 
tioner. Theology  separates  men  into  religious  sects 
and  engenders  personal  strife  and  animosity.  Though 
we  live  in  a  more  liberal  age,  we  cannot  forget  the 
bitterness  of  ancient  theological  disputations  and  the 
dire  persecutions  and  inquisitions  to  which  they  gave 
rise.  Even  at  this  day  argumentation  regarding  eccle- 
siastical questions  is  not  free  from  turbulence  of 
spirit  and  personalities,  and  lacks  that  calmness  and 
equanimity  which  should  be  diffused  about  converse 
and  discussion  in  polite  society.  Even  at  this  day 
theology  is  so  deeply  rooted  that  it  can,  with  diffi- 
culty only,   be   amended,   that  it   cannot   be  dislodged. 

Though  theology  has  appeared  to  most  people  as 
an  ogre,  they  still  cling  to  it.  Despite  its  forbidding 
countenance,  they  still  warm  to  it.  Its  very  repul- 
siveness  seems  to  have  an  attraction.  Its  dreaded  as 
pect,  its  severity  is  due  to  its  intrinsic  worth  and  to 
the  necessity    of   guarding    it.      Theology    must    exist. 


260  JEWISH    THEOLOGY. 

Its  existence  is  not  only  imperative,  it  is  inevitable. 
Theology  has  its  raison  d'etre  even  as  much  as  reli- 
gion ;  it  is  the  very  basis  of  the  latter.  No  theology : 
no   religion. 

Theology    is    not  artificial,    was   not    made   and   im- 
posed altogether  upon  an  unsuspecting  world   by   priest 
or  prophet.     It  has  its  natural  beginning  even  as  have 
chemistry,   botany,    etc.     These    sciences    exist   because 
there    are    facts    in    nature,     the    knowledge    regarding 
which     has    been    classified    and    systematized.      There 
exists  theology,  because  there  is  one  Great   Fact  in  the 
universe    regarding    which    we    have    systematized    our  ^;  Ar^^i 
knowledge.     There   is    theology   because    there    is   God.  '     .  i.' 
Theology  has  therefore  a   natural  beginning,   since  it  is  t^^^ 
the  mind's   conception   of    God.      And  as   the   mind   is      ^ f^ 
not    stationary,    so    theology     must    change.     It    is    an 
evolution. 

The  evil  of  which  men  complain,  the  ogre  part  of 
theology,  lies  not  in  the  thing  itself,  but  in  the  men 
who  have  misunderstood,  misrepresented  and  deformed 
it.  They  were  so  thoroughly  convinced  of  the  value 
of  theology,  and  of  its  necessity,  that  they  gave  to  it 
a  fixed  form  and  opposed  every  change.  They  over- 
looked the  facts  or  did  not  know,  that  by  giving 
theology  any  particular  and  fixed  form  they  in  reality 
deformed  it.  Theology,  being  a  product  of  the  mind, 
must  grow  with  it  or  else  its  form  will  not  corres- 
pond to  its  parent.  We  are  familiar  with  the  dwarfish 
appearance  of  many  a  child  whose  growth  has  been 
stunted,  while  its  parent  developed  physically  and 
mentally.  There  are  also  social  dwarfs,  governmental 
deformities,  religious  and  theological  pigmies  wherever 
society,  government  or  church  has  not  kept  pace  with 
the   mental  growth  of  the    age. 

Every  fixed  creed  of  to-day  will  be  a  dwarf  to-mor~ 


Jewish  theology.  261 

i^ow.  Every  synodical  edict  of  yesterday  is  to-day  a 
deformity.  Over  night  the  mind  that  gave  it  birth 
has  stridden  far  ahead.  No  wonder,  then,  that  the 
creeds  that  were  formulated  centuries  ago,  and  to 
which  nothing  has  been  added  or  taken  away,  seem 
like  dreaded  apparitions  of  the  night,  like  demons  of 
another  world,  like  ghosts  of  some  dead  inquisitors. 
They  are  the  theological  scarecrows  that  frighten  our 
young  men  away  from  the  religious  seminaries  and 
alienate  our  thoughtful  men  and  women  from  the 
churches,  and  torment  the  days  and  nights  of  consci- 
entious ministers.  Not  theology,  but  its  fixed  forms, 
created  the  estrangement  between  itself  and  advanced 
minds.  The  ironclad  creeds  forcibly  separated  men 
into  sects,  and  like  vexed  boundary  lines  became  the 
cause   of  war  and   of  bitter   cruel  persecution. 

In  Judaism  there  is  no  room  for  persecution,  partly 
because  it  is  a  religion  that  preaches  and  practices 
love  of  fellow-men,  but  especially  because  it  has  noth- 
ing by  which  to  excuse  persecution,  nothing  that  is 
so  fixed  that  it  can  form  the  basis  for  heresy  trial, 
excomnmnication  or  anathema.  A  Jew  is  born,  not 
made;  that  is,  he  is  born,  not  in  a  physical  but  in 
a  spiritual  sense.  He  is  born  with  a  mind  that  can 
appreciate  the  existence  of  God,  with  a  soul  that  real- 
izes itself  to  be  a  part  of  the  Universal  Soul,  with  a 
spirituality  that  is  an  image  of  the  Deity.  The  more 
this  mind  grows,  the  more  is  the  conception  of  God 
elaborated.  A  Jew  is  not  made  in  the  sense  in 
which  I  have  seen  converts  made,  that  is  by  studying 
a  creed  by  heart,  reciting  it  before  witnesses  and  being 
sprinkled  with  water  which  lias  been  blessed  with 
some  incantations.  A  Jew  is  born  spiritually  and  re-  (^i.'-x^t. 
born  each  day  as  long  as  mental  development  is  pos- 
sible. 


^62  JEWtsii  Theology. 

Creed  has  never  been  obligatory  in  Judaism.  Our 
theology  is  a  philosophy  of  the  universe,  of  human 
and  divine  life  which  must  be  understood  and  known. 
Merely  to  assent  to  certain  doctrines  does  not,  in  a 
strict  sense,  constitute  a  Jew.  We  have  in  reality  no 
catechism  except  for  convenience.  Every  man  must 
make  his  own  system  of  theoloojy  out  of  the  knowl- 
edge which  he  has.  Religion  must  come  from  within, 
and  not  from  without.  Blind  faith  is  mere  supersti- 
tion. To  say,  I  believe  in  God,  Providence,  reward 
and  punishment,  in  immortality  because  my  father, 
teacher,  priest  or  prophet  has  believed  in  the  same 
doctrines,  is  not  religion.  Such  a  faith  does  not  con- 
stitute belief  in  God,  but  in  another's  report  about 
God.  To  believe  in  God  one  must  know  Gocl,  must 
have  comprehended  Him  by  His  manifestations  in  the 
universe.  That  is  the  first  desideratum  of  Jewish 
theolog}^ —knowing  God.  Theology  means  knowledge  ,^ 
of  God.  The  Scriptures  tell  us :  "Thou  shalt  know 
this  day  and  consider  it  in  thine  heart,  that  the 
Lord,  He  is  God."  The  Psalmist  says:  "The  begin- 
ning of  knowledge  is  the  reverence  or  fear  of  God." 
In  the  book  of  Isaiah  (xliii,  10)  we  read  :  "Ye  are 
my  witnesses  and  my  servants  whom  I  have  chosen, 
saith  the  Lord,  in  order  that  ye  may  know  and  be- 
lieve me  and  understand  that  I  am  He  -before  me 
there  was  no  God  formed  and  after  me  there  will  be 
none."  In  fact,  man  is  not  commanded,  in  the  Bible, 
to  believe.  He  is  only  enjoined  to  study,  understand 
and  know.  The  so-called  ten  commandments  are  not 
altogether  commandments,  but  rather  ten  principles, 
ten  words  as  the  Scriptures  call  them.  They  do  not 
command  belief  in  God,  but  merely  declare  that  there 
is  God,  the  same  God  that  brought  Israel  out  of  the 
land    of  Egypt   and   the   house   of  bondage. 


JEWISH   THEOLOGY.  263 

Jewish  theology,  being  dependent  on  knowledge  and 
being  as  progressive  as  the  mind,  cannot  be  cast  into 
fixed  moulds.  Many  have  tried  to  formulate  a  Jewish 
creed,  and  failed.  Even  the  notable  efforts  of  Maimon- 
ides  gave  no  universal  satisfaction.  His  thirteen  arti- 
cles of  faith  have  for  us  merely  a  historical  value  show- 
ing one  particular  stage  in  the  development  of  Jewish 
theology.  It  is  of  constant  interest  to  know  that 
his  articles  of  creed  specified  belief  in  God  as  Creator, 
His  unity,  spirituality,  eternity,  the  worship  of  Him 
alone,  the  authenticity  of  prophecy, — the  distinction  of 
Moses  from  the  other  prophets,  the  law  of  Mosaic 
origin,  the  immutability  of  the  law,  God's  omnis- 
cience, reward  and  punishment,  the  Messiah — resur- 
rection and  future  life.  Some  Jewish  philosophers 
increased  the  number  of  these  articles,  while  others 
reduced  them  to  as  low  a  number  as  three.  But  there 
was  never  agreement  as  to  whether  these  three  doc- 
trine^ were  revelation,  reward  and  punishment  or 
creation,  omniscience  and  Providence  or  God,  revela- 
tion and  immortality.  Some  deny  reward,  others  rev- 
elation, and  still  others  the  immutability  of  God's 
law.  There  is  no  agreement  as  to  a  fixed  creed  in 
Judaism. 

All  are  agreed,  however,  that  the  principle  "There  is 
God"  is  the  foundation  of  Jewish  theology.  God  can 
not  be  defined  in  set  terms  and  phrases.  The  Bible 
merely  postulates  Him,  accepts  Him,  as  an  axiom. 
The  Bible  merely  states  "In  the  beginning  God  created 
heaven  and  earth."  "The  heavens  declare  the  glory  of 
God  and  the  expanse  tells  of  the  works  of  His  hands." 
There  is  no  attempt  in  the  Bible  to  demonstrate  the 
existence  of  God — and  no  expectancy  is  expressed  that 
man  will  ever  reach  a  perfect  knowledge  of  Him. 
The  Scripture   is  quite  plain    in    regard    to    man's     in- 


264  JEWISH   THEOLOGY. 

ability  to  fathom  God,  in  saying  that  God  declares  to 
Moses,  "Thou  canst  see  me  from  behind,"— that  is, 
know  Him  by  His  manifestations — "for  no  man  can  see 
my  face  and   live." 

It  is  this  very  feature  of  Jewish  theology  which  re- 
quires a  study  of  God  in  His  works  and  manifesta- 
tions as  a  condition  for  knowing  God  that  makes  our 
theology  distinctively  Jewish.  It  can  never  be  narrow 
and  never  lead  to  bigotry  and  intolerance.  It  is  the 
natural  enemy  of  ignorance  and  the  friend  of  all  learn- 
ing. It  courts  wisdom  and  welcomes  every  science, 
philosophy  and  criticism.  It  grows  as  the  mind  ex- 
pands. Just  as  in  climbing  a  mountain  our  horizon 
widens  in  proportion  as  our  plane  of  vision  becomes 
higher,  so  the  older  we  grow  and  the  wiser  we  become 
the  truer  and  grander  becomes  our  conception  of  Deity. 
Every  new  fact  of  history,  every  new  experience  in  life, 
every  new  revelation  in  the  world  of  matter  by  the 
means  of  science  opens  up  new  views  of  God  and 
greater  glories  of  His  infinite  wisdom,  love,  power  and 
justice.  The  more  we  know  of  God,  the  more  we 
realize  the  incapability  of  the  human  mind  to  compre- 
hend Him  and  the  insufficiency  of  human  language  to 
define  or  describe  Him.  "The  heaven  and  earth  can- 
not contain  Thee,  how  much  less  this  house  which  I 
have  built,"  says  the  sage  in  the  Bible.  How  much 
less  can  the  finite  thoughts  of  man  and  his  feeble 
tongue,  interpret  Deity.  We  have  a  God  whom  no 
particular  name  is  able  to  connote.  Whether  you  call 
Him,  God,  Lord,  King,  Creator,  Love,  Wisdom,  Truth, 
Freedom,  Justice,  the  Infinite  and  the  Eternal,  the 
One,  spiritual,  omniscient  and  most  holy,  or  all  of  these 
names  together,  you  cannot  fully  express  our  concep- 
tion of  Him.  The  finite  cannot  wholly  grasp  the  in- 
finite,   the    imperfect    can    only     approximately    reach 


JEWISH  TfiEOLOGY.  26S 

the  perfect.  It  is  vain  to  attempt  to  imagine  God  or 
fully  represent  Him  in  highest  diction  of  prose  or 
poetry.  "Who  is  like  unto  the  Lord  our  God  that  hath 
His  seat  on  high,  that  humbleth  himself  to  behold 
the  things  that  are  in  heaven  and  in  the  earth." 
(Ps.  cxiii.)  "I  dwell  in  the  high  and  holy  place 
(says  God)  with  Him  also  that  is  of  a  contrite  and 
humble  spirit  (Is.  Ivii).  Not  in  the  wind  was  the  Lord, 
neither  in  the  earthquake,  nor  in  the  fire,  but  in  the 
still  small  voice  (compare  I  Kings  xix,  11-13).  No 
human  reason  or  expression  can  reach  infinite  heights 
and  depths  as   does   God. 

Jewish  theology  is  unique  in  this  supremely  lofty 
conception  that  surpasses  expression.  It  is  an  effort 
of  the  mind  to  fathom  the  mystery  of  this  universe — 
of  man  and  of  his  relation  thereto.  Here  is  this  mys- 
terious, intricate  universe,  this  daily  panorama  of 
natural  phenomena,  in  the  heavens,  on  the  earth,  in 
the  seas,  and  in  the  depths  of  the  earth — all  created 
and  governed ;  though  seemingly  independent,  yet 
showing  harmony,  design  and  purpose.  Here  is  man 
just  as  wonderful  and  intricate,  and  as  inexplicable. 
Jewish  theology  says  there  is  unity  in  creation,  and 
unity  in  man  and  that  there  is  an  intimate  relation 
between  man  and  all  creation  which  science  itself  can 
prove.  Whatever  exists  must  have  had  a  cause.  There 
must  have  been  a  first  cause.  Whatever  exists  in 
the  effect  must  have  in  some  form  or  mode  existed  in 
the  cause.  The  unity  in  all  creation  and  in  man  and 
between  the  two — a  unity  which  is  manifested  by  de- 
sign, harmony  and  purpose — must  be  the  result  of  One 
supreme  Creator.  God  is  the  creative  unifying  spirit 
in  man  and  all  the  universe.  Whatever  we  compre- 
hend in  man  as  sj^irituality  must  be  the  image  of 
God.     This  spirituality  manifested  in  thought,  will,  free- 


266  JEWISH    THEOLOGY. 

dom,  love,  mercy,  justice,  must  exist  in  infinite  quality 
and  degree  in  God.  This  Deity  means  life,  power,  in- 
tellect, freedom,  love,  mercy,  justice,  etc.,  infinite  and 
eternal.  Life  eternal  means  immortality,  divine  love, 
mercy  and  justice,  means  reward  and  punishment; 
divine  wisdom  means  revelation  and  inspiration.  God 
as  unity  is  the  great  bond  of  force  that  unifies  crea- 
tion  and    the   bond   of  love   that  unites   mankind. 

"This  Jewish  idea  of  God  eclipses  any  and  every 
conception  of  Deity  that  has  ever  been  advanced."  Sci- 
ence may  speak  of  the  Unknown  and  Unknowable,  Ju- 
daism believes  in  a  God  who  has  revealed  something 
of  Himself  and  is  constantly  unfolding  more  of  His 
nature.  It  is  our  duty  to  road  the  revelations  of  God 
in  the  stars  and  rocks,  in  the  earth  and  in  the  sea. 
We  can  know  much  of  God  by  his  manifestations — by 
studying  His  laws  in  the  world  of  matter  and  of  man, 
as  well  as  in  the  spiritual  world.  We  can  know  God 
through  our  own  soul,  through  our  own  likeness  with 
Him  in  spirit,  through  our  conscience  and  our  con- 
sciousness. Modern  science  with  its  doctrines  of  the 
conservation  of  energy  and  the  correlation  of  forces, 
comes  very  close  to  the  unity  of  God,  of  man  and  of 
creation.  This  unity  in  terms  of  science  means  the  one 
final  element  and  force  that  will  be  found  to  underlie 
the  universe.  In  aesthetics  this  unity  is  translated  into 
blending  of  colors,  in  music,  into  harmony  of  sound,  in 
architecture,  into  symmetry.  In  chemistry  it  means 
affinity ;  in  ethics,  the  universal  brotherhood ;  in  reli- 
gion, the  common  fatherhood  of  God ;  in  statesmanship, 
the  universal  republic. 

In  comparison  to  this  Jewish  theology,  the  doctrines 
about  God  that  other  systems  have  taught  are  vastly 
inferior.  Zoroastrianism  teaches  a  Ditheism,  or  belief  in 
two  coequal  gods :     Ormuzd,  the  good,  and  Ahiram,  the 


JEWtSH   THEOLOGY.  267 

evil,  who  are  involved  in  a  constant  conflict.  Brahmin- 
ism  maintains  that  there  is  but  one  reality,  the  Spirit, 
absorption  into  which  is  the  highest  good.  This  system 
tended  towards  pantheism  and  led  to  an  ascetic  life. 
Buddhism  is  a  reaction  against  this  extreme  and  one- 
sided spiritualism,  and  became  equally  as  extreme  and 
one-sided  an  advocate  of  naturalism.  It  lost  sight  of 
the  Creator  in  its  regard  for  the  tendency  of  events  and 
the  invariable  laws  that  controlled  them.  Confucian- 
ism reverses  the  past,  teaches  a  prudential  morality,  i.  e., 
obedience  to  the  proprieties  and  conventionalities  of  the 
times.  It  is  eminently  practical,  but  imperfect  because 
of  its  atheism.  The  religion  of  the  ancient  Greeks  con- 
sisted mainly  in  the  deification  of  human  nature;  the 
creation  of  gods  out  of  the  human  qualities.  These 
gods  were  supposed  to  inhabit  Mt.  Olympus,  revel  in 
feasting,  and,  in  the  intervals  between  their  feasts,  to 
rule  the  world.  The  religion  of  Rome  was  similar  to 
that  of  Greece,  with  the  difference  that  the  mythology 
of  Greece  was  poetical  and  romantic,  while  that  of 
Rome  was  prosaic  and  more  identified  with  the  ordi- 
nary affairs  of  life.  Thus,  for  instance,  the  Romans 
had  a  god  who  was  charged  with  the  care  of  bakers' 
ovens,  and  another  who  looked  after  the  welfare  of 
Roman  coin.  In  the  religion  of  the  ancient  Egyptians 
God  appears  in  every  phenomenon  of  nature.  He  is 
not,  as  in  Brahminism,  a  unit,  but  divided  and  parcelled 
out  in  every  planet,  animal  and  form  of  nature.  While 
the  Brahm  represented  the  spirit  world,  the  God  of 
the  Egyptian  was  the  material  world  worshiped  under 
the  form  of  a  polytheistic  idolatry.  Mohammedanism 
teaches  the  worship  of  one  God  as  the  supreme  will, 
but  surrenders  man  to  an  irrevocable  fate  to  which  he 
must  submit. 
Ail  these  various  theological  systems  emphasize  only 


26B  .TEWTSH   THEOLOGY. 

one  or  the  other  side  of  the  great  questions  before 
man.  They  all  recognize  the  divine  element  and  find 
it  either  wholly  spirit  as  the  Hindoo,  or  wholly  mat- 
ter as  the  Egyptian,  or  wholly  natural  law  as  the  Bud- 
dhist— or  they  deify  man  as  the  Greeks  and  Romans, 
or  lose  sight  of  man  as  the  Mohammedans,  or  else  in- 
volve us  in  an  endless  struggle  as  the  Zoroastrian,  mak- 
ing religion  a  battle  instead  of  rest  and  peace,  -  or  lead 
us  into  atheism  as  did  Confucius.  Christianit}^  tried  to 
remedy  these  defects  by  a  medium  partly  God  and 
partly  man  to  represent  what  each  of  the  religions  had 
or  omitted. 

As  the  theology  of  the  so-called  polytheistic,  panthe- 
istic or  heathen  religions  is  inadequate,  so  also  is  Chris- 
tianity. We  have  no  room  in  our  theology  for  a  me- 
dium between  God  and  man.  The  relations  between 
God  and  man  are  direct,  and  cannot,  by  proxy,  be 
turned  over  to  another.  Man  is  responsible  to  God 
alone  and  God  can  onl}^  act  upon  him  directly.  The 
efficacy  of  prayer  depends  upon  this  direct  communica- 
tion with  God.  As  our  relation  to  the  universe  is  di- 
rect so  must  also  be  our  relation  to  God.  This  is  an- 
other aspect  of  God's  unity,  omnipotence,  omniscience 
and  immutability  which  has  never  been  fully  under- 
stood by  the  heathen  or  Christian  world.  Any  medium 
between  God  and  man  mast  necessarily,  by  so  much, 
weaken  God's  influence  and  curtail  His  omniscience 
and  omnipotence.  God  has  sent  no  special  vicar  to 
earth,  commissioned  no  church  to  enslave  the  world, 
and  does  not  divide  his  powders  of  the  dispensation  of 
justice  with  any  mortal.  God  is  all-powerful  and  self- 
sufficient.  Unitarians  who  have  rejected  the  divinity 
of  Jesus  arrive  at  a  monotheistic  conception  indirectly, 
through  a  negation  of  the  Trinity.  Judaism  is  based  on 
an  affirmation  of  the  unity  of  God.     Judaism  is  the  first 


JEWISH   THEOLOGY.  269 

and  only  truly  monotheistic  religion,  minus  every  taint 
of  polytheism  and  heathenism.  To  surrender  one  tithe 
of  it  would  be  untrue  to  a  noble  ancestry  that  fought 
and  bled  for  the  truth,  would  be  unfaithful  to  the  cov- 
enant of  our  fathers  who,  at  Sinai,  pledged  for  us  that 
we  will  hear  and  do,  i.  e.,  that  we  will  become  the  ban- 
ner bearers  of  the  One  God,  a  kingdom  of  priests  to 
teach  and  convert  the  world.  Is  our  mission  ended  ? 
Is  the  world  converted  ?  As  long  as  there  is  a  heathen 
altar  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  as  long  as  men  bow 
down  to  idols,  as  long  as  children  are  thrown  into  the 
Ganges  and  men  hurl  themselves  under  the  Jugger- 
naut, as  long  as  men  worship  gods  of  stone,  wood,  sil- 
ver or  gold,  as  long  as  the  church  and  state  are  not 
everywhere  separated,  as  long  as  men  seek  to  impose 
their  particular  theologies  on  the  world,  by  sword,  fire 
or  ballot  box — so  long  must  we  remain  Jews,  a  living 
protest  against  superstition  and  error,  and  a  witness 
that  God  is  our  Lord,  that  God  is  one. 


JUDAISM   AND  UNITARIANISM. 


BY     REV.    MAURICE    H.    HARRIS    A.M.,   PH.D.,    RABBI    TEMPLE 
ISRAEL    OF    HARLEM,    N.  Y. 


Christianity,  having  wandered  off  into  paganism  in 
its  early  stages,  has  in  its  latest  phase — Unitarianism, 
returned  so  closely  to  its  first  parent— Judaism,  that 
some  people  have  asked  whether  there  be  any  substan- 
tial difference  between  them,  and  whether  amalgamation 
might  not  be  possible.  Should  any  Unitarian,  or  for 
that  matter  a  member  of  any  religion,  desire  to  affiliate 
with  Judaism  because  of  identity  of  belief,  the  fold  of 
our  faith  is  always  open.  We  do  not  seek  converts  but 
we  do  not  reject  them  when  they  come  to  us  with 
honest  conviction.  We  do  not  seek  them,  because  one 
of  the  doctrines  of  our  faith  is  that  salvation  is  not 
confined  to  its  members.  Furthermore,  since  Judaism 
has  been  a  common  fount  whence  many  religions  have 
drunk  and  from  whose  literature  they  continue  to  draw 
both  doctrinal  and  ethical  teaching,  even  he  who  con- 
tinues as  Christian  or  Mohammedan,  remains  necessarily 
largely  Jewish. 

That  any  Jews  should  become  Unitarians,  because  of 
the  similarity  of  belief  would  be  equivalent  to  asking 
the  ocean  to  flow  back  into  its  tributaries,  and  re- 
minds us  strongly  of  the  old  lady  who  complained  of 
a  Shakespearean  play,  that  it  was  full  of  quotations. 
We  have  never  deviated  from  our  strict  monotheism,  to 

(370) 


JUDAISM   AND  UNITARIANISM.  271 

us()  the  Greek  term,  or  from  our  strict  unitarianism,  to 
use  the  Latin  term,  when  once  we  had  attained  it,  and 
if  after  all  this  lapse  of  centuries  the  most  intellectual 
and  cultivated  Christians,  of  whom  the  Unitarians  are 
mainly  composed,  are  coming  to  our  way  of  belief  at 
last,  it  only  strengthens  our  confidence  in  our  grand 
old  religion,  that  has  withstood  the  ravages  of  time  and 
of  man,  and  encourages  our  determination  to  remain 
true  to  it. 

I  say  this  even  accepting  for  a  moment  the  hypoth- 
esis that  the  faiths  are  in  dogma  identical.  But  are 
they?  The  difference  between  Judaism  in  its  most 
radical  form  and  Unitarianism  according  to  its  latest 
acceptation  are  still  decisive.  But  let  us  first  see 
briefly  what  Unitarianism  is. 

There  have  always  been  some  individuals  even  in  the 
earliest  stages  of  Christianity,  who  could  not  accept  the 
logic  of  the  Trinity  nor  believe  in  the  divinity  of  Jesus. 
At  times  there  were  sufficient  of  these  dissenters  to 
form  distinct  schools  or  parties  differentiated  according 
to  the  modified  form  in  which  they  accepted  these 
doctrines.  By  about  the  middle  of  the  16th  century 
we  find  them  grown  numerous  enough  to  become  a 
church  in  Poland  and  also  in  Transylvania,  where 
they  exist  still.  While  persecution  kept  the  movement 
from  swelling  to  the  importance  of  a  denomination  in 
England  till  as  late  as  the  last  century,  England  and 
the  English  speaking  countries  have  since  become  its 
stronghold. 

Till  recent  years  the  ties  that  bound  it  to  orthodox 
Christianity  were  many  and  close.  At  times  it  was  hard 
to  see  where  Presbyterianism  left  off  and  Unitarianism 
began,  while  both  the  Baptists  and  the  Quakers  have 
Unitarian  wings.  The  conservative  Unitarians  accept 
the    miracles    performed    by    Jesus     of   Nazareth,    and 


272  JUDAISM   AND   UNITARIANISM. 

although  they  reject  his  divinity  they  believe  he  was 
divinely  sent,  entrusted  with  a  mission  from  God  to 
man,  some  even  still  maintaining  that  he  was  pre-exist- 
ent  and  superangelic.  They  reject  the  doctrines  of  vi- 
carious atonement,  original  sin  and  everlasting  pun- 
ishment, but  the  ceremonies  of  the  Lord's  Supper  and 
Baptism   are   retained. 

The  advance  Unitarians  accept  the  modern  rational 
view  of  the  Bible,  and  that  modern  scientific  thought, 
that  Weltanschatoung,  that  has  been  given  to  the  world 
chiefly  by  the  great  thinkers  of  Germany,  though  the 
progressive  ideas  of  all  nationalities  have  contributed  a 
share.  But  even  with  these,  the  character  of  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  is  so  sublimated  above  all  humanity,  that  his 
adoration,  if  not  divine  worship,  is  at  least  semi-di- 
vine worship.  But  Unitarianism  has  a  still  more  radi- 
cal wing  that  declines  to  put  its  signature  to  any 
creed  but  which  stands  on  an  ethical  and  non-theo- 
logical basis.  It  will  not  even  necessarily  accept  the 
cardinal  doctrine  implied  in  the  name,  the  doctrine  of 
one  God,  so  that  some  of  its  teachers  are  pantheistic 
and  some  agnostic.  Its  modus  vivendi  is  simply  free 
inquiry,  in  fact,  this  extreme  wing  is  little  more  than 
a  free  religious  society,  in  which  the  life  of  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  is  made  the  ideal  example.  For  this  reason, 
it  has  been  called  by  its  more  strictly  Christian  critics 
— "A   System  of  Pale   Negations." 

Such,  briefly  stated,  is  Unitarianism  in  its  diff"erent 
phases.  Whatever  further  shades  of  difference  specific 
congregations  might  assume  would  simply  arise  from 
the  personality  of  the  individual  minister.  As  one  of 
the  exponents  in  a  recent  utterance  declares,  "In  Uni- 
tarian congregations  exist  every  shade  of  belief,  from 
those  who  are  not  sure  whether  they  believe  anything, 
to  almost  the  border  line  of  orthodoxy." 


JUDAISM   AND   UNITARIANISM.  273 

From  this  cursory  outline  a  resemblance  will  be 
seen  between  the  advance  Unitarians  and  the  reform 
Jews : — both  accept  the  higher  criticisms  of  the  Bible, 
both  heartily  endorse  the  well-established  conclusions 
of  modern  science,  both  take  the  same  point  of  view 
on  the  great  things  of  life  and  the  world,  and  both 
are,  of  course,  anti-trinitarian.  There  are  yet  funda- 
mental distinctions  between  them,  what  are  they?  Re- 
ligion is  more  than  a  matter  of  creed  or  philosophy. 
What  makes  the  high-church  Episcopalian  and  the 
radical  Unitarian  really  at  one,  in  spite  of  the  differ- 
ent way  in  which  each  interprets  the  common  faith 
that  they  both  accept?  What  constitutes  the  bond  of 
union  between  an  orthodox  Moorish  Jew  and  an  ad- 
vance American  Reformer,  in  spite  of  the  wide  diver- 
gence  of  their  respective   views  of  Judaism? 

The  answer  is  involved  in  the  complex  character  of 
religion.  Those  who  think  all  religion  can  be  summed 
up  in  a  dogmatic  creed  are  as  wide  of  the  truth  as 
those  who  think  it  is  all  contained  in  a  moral  code. 
Belief  and  conduct  are  provinces  of  religion  but  do 
not  include  its  whole  territory.  "Believe  and  you 
shall  be  saved  "  is  the  cry  of  the  orthodox  Christian. 
"I  am  just  to  my  neighbor — that's  my  religion,"  says 
the  modern  rationalist.  Another  conscientiously  fulfils 
the  ceremonial  and  ritual  observances  and  calls  him- 
self a  religious  man.  And  while  we  realize  the  insuffi- 
ciency of  the  last  more  fully  than  of  the  two  preceding, 
a  sober  second  thought  is  seeing  a  relative  value  in 
the  forms  of  religion,  that  a  little  while  ago  it  was 
considered  liberal  to  despise.  Professor  Toy  declares: 
"There  is  no  instance  on  record  of  a  wide  popular 
acceptance  of  a  religious  system,  whose  essence  was 
merely  a  principle  of  inward  life ;  there  is  no  reason  to 
^uppos^  that  a  reformer  who  should  confine  himself  to 


274  JUDAISM   AND   UNITARIANISM. 

this   subjective   ethical    religious   sphere   would    be   suc- 
cessful  unless  his   work   were   suppleiiientrd." 
/    A    religion  is   a   system    by   which  one   i-egulates    his 
life   in   all    its   various   phases.   ^For   this   reason   it  be- 
comes   bound    up   with    social    institutions.     In    Juda- 
ism, for   instance,    not  only  birth,    marriage   and   death 
had   their   religious    sanctification,    not  only   the   week, 
the  year,    the   spring,    the    harvest,    the    autumn    were 
ushered    in    by   Sabbath,     New    Year,   Passover,  Pente- 
cost and   Tabernacles — but    even   the     daily    meal,   the 
morning  rising   and   the   night  retiring  recalled   the   re- 
lation   of  man   to   his   God   in  prayer  and   praise,   and 
fed   the   fires   of  faith    and  spiritual    life.     In    this  way 
the    beliefs     and     morals    of    religion     taking     tangible 
form    in   appropriate   and    beautiful     symbols    clustered  ' 
in   inseparable  associations  around  the  home  as   well  as 
the   synagogue    and   hallowed    by   some    suggestive  ob- 
servance   every   circumstance    of   life,    dedicating   as    it 
were  every   act   to   God.     Gradually   some   of   these   re- 
ligious   forms   fall   away  when   they    cease   to   interpret 
the  inner  life   or   to  suggest  the  highest  religious  ideals, 
gradually    the   faith    takes    to   itself  new   symbols   that 
better  express   the   needs  of  the   generation  and  stir  its 
emotional   depths.     But   a   symbol  of  some   sort  is  nec- 
essary  to   meet  all   grades   of  intelligence,  to   appeal  to 
sensation    as    well    as    to  thought  and     to     clothe     hu- 
manity's   profoundest     conceptions    with    a   drapery   of 
helpful   association.  jWe   cannot   deliberately  create  the 
form   any   more   than   the  doctrine.     They  grow   as   we 
ourselves.  iA   distinct    mode   of  religious  life    develops 
special    characteristics  and    brings  out  what  we   call  in- 
dividuality.    The    nature   of    Judaism    has     tended     to 
sanctify   family   life    and   strengthen   family     ties.     An- 
other  trait    it    has  engendered  in  its  followers  to   a  re- 
markable  degree  is  optimisni,   for  which   Schopenhauer 


JUDAISM   AND   UNITARIANISM.  275 

never  forgave  them.  Mohammedanism,  Buddhism, 
Christianity,  Judaism,  all  have  their  symbols,  their 
ceremonies,  their  religious  organization.  They  are  not  of 
to-day  nor  of  yesterday.  They  began  in  the  dim  past, 
they  are  engrained  in  the  very  being  of  their  ad- 
herents, part  not  only  of  their  inheritance  but  of 
themselves.  They  are  bound  up  too,  with  belief  and 
moral  practice  all  grown  into  one  comprehensive  whole 
and   known   as  religion. 

Whether  Catholic  or  Unitarian  the  cross  is  the  sym- 
bol of  the  whole  of  Christianity.  It  has  taken  various 
forms  :  it  has  entered  their  poetry  and  their  hymnal ; 
it  has  become  a  metaphor  for  sacrifice  and  suffering, 
and  in  this  way  is  made  to  do  service  in  ethical  in- 
struction, and  whether  they  believe  that  on  that  cross 
Jesus  suffered  for  the  sins  of  mankind  in  their  place 
as  vicarious  atonement,  or  simply  "lived  and  died  to 
save  men  from  their  sins,"  which  is  a  distinction  the 
Unitarians  make,  in  a  little  statement  of  principles 
drawn  up  by  their  association — it  will  be  seen  here 
how  the  symbol  persists  after  the  belief  has  changed, 
and  how  it  becomes  modified  to  meet  the  changed 
belief. 

The  fast  on  the  Day  of  Atonement,  and  the  day  it- 
self may  mean  the  same  to  the  orthodox  as  to  the  re- 
form Jews.  To  the  latter,  the  observance  of  the  day, 
the  abstaining  from  food,  and  the  faithful  reading  of  its 
services  may  in  themselves  have  a  certain  atoning 
power,  although  it  is  distinctly  stated  in  the  central 
climax  of  the  service  that  the  repentance  and  righte- 
ousness must  accompany  the  fasting  and  prayer  to  win 
God's  grace.  To  the  reformer,  the  day  may  be  rather 
an  inspiration  to  better  life  than  its  absolutely  nec- 
essary forerunner.  But  to  both  it  is  the  great  day  of 
Israel's    religious    reunion,    when     the    associations    of 


276  JUDAISM   AND    UNITARIANISM. 

childhood  are  recalled  and  the  higher  prompting  of  the 
soul   awakened. 

Dr.  Bellows,  a  well-known  Unitarian  minister  of  this 
city,  who  has  since  passed  away,  voiced  the  conviction 
of  his  sect  when  he  pointed  out  the  necessity  of  re- 
taining the  ceremony  known  as  the  "Lord's  Supper."  To 
Unitarians  it  does  not  mean  what  the  Sacrament  means 
to  the  orthodox  Protestant  and  their  acceptation  of  it 
is,  of  course,  still  more  widely  divergent  from  the 
Catholic  view  of  it,  which  under  the  name  of  "  tran- 
substantiation  "  maintains  that  the  bread  and  wine  par- 
taken at  this  religious  ceremony  become  the  flesh  and 
blood  of  their  Savior.  Yet  both  extreme  wings  of 
Christianity  observe  the  same  ceremony,  and  in  spite 
of  the  wide  divergence  of  belief  between  them,  are 
linked   by  it. 

There  are  some  modern  Jews  who  do  not  accept 
Israel's  departure  from  Egypt,  in  quite  the  way  in 
which  it  is  given  in  the  Bible,  while  nevertheless  ad- 
mitting the  general  fact.  But  the  Passover  cele1)rates 
the  great  event  that  marks  the  birth  of  the  Jewish 
nation  for  conservative  and  radical  alike.  They  recog- 
nize it  as  their  starting-point  in  history.  And  know- 
ing how  closely  religion  for  the  whole  world  is  bound 
up  with  Israel's  marvelous  history,  it  becomes  to  them 
also  the  memorial  of  the  birth  of  religion  in  general. 
In  the  first  and  fourth  commandments  and  through- 
out all  the  liturgy,  it  is  blended  with  the  belief  in 
God  and  the  institution  of  the  Sabbath.  It  is  there- 
fore annually  commemorated  as  the  feast  of  moral  and 
physical  freedom.  It  is  made  also  the  Spring  Festival 
in  a  natural  as  well  as  in  a  human  sense;  the  Fes- 
tival of  Joy  and  aAvakening  after  Egypt's  long  winter 
of  discontent.  Each  of  its  varied  significations  then 
tells    a    chapter   in    their  history,    brings    forward     an 


JUDAISM   AND    tlNITARlANlSM.  277 

article  of  their  belief  and  impresses  a  great  moral 
principle. 

This  brings  us  to  another  all-important  feature  of 
every  religion  which  must  never  be  left  out  of  count — 
the  historical.  That  the  history  of  a  religion  is  part 
of  a  religion  is  truer  of  Judaism  than  of  any  other. 
Our  history  has  been  called  "Sacred  History"  not  by 
ourselves,  but  by  the  Gentiles,  and  the  land  which 
formed  its  setting,   they  call   the  "Holy   Land." 

What  a  sublime  series  of  pictures  it  calls  up.  Moses 
and  Samuel  and  the  prophets;  Sinai,  Canaan,  Jerusa- 
lem ;  the  wanderings,  the  captivity,  the  dispersion ;  the 
poets,  the  scientists,  the  philosophers;  the  law,  the  Tal- 
mud, the  liturgy,  the  Maccabees,  the  rabbis,  the  mar- 
tyrs. All  these  are  our  inheritance,  and  the  sad  is  as 
precious  as  the  joyful.  Each  represents  a  stone  in  the 
structure  of  our  faith  and  all  were  needed  to  make  the 
glorious  whole.  Each  of  these  leading  names  and  in- 
cidents are  interwoven  in  our  ritual,  our  festivals  and 
our  observances.  The  growth  of  our  conception  of 
God  makes  our  monotheism  all  the  more  intense. 
How  each  great  soul  added  something  to  that  great 
belief;  how  it  broadened  and  deepened  and  grew  in 
spiritual  force  and  moral  sublimity,  as  each  successive 
prophet-hero  breathed  his  inspiration  into  it.  How 
at  length  the  vital  God-idea  so  filled  the  horizon  of 
our  ancestors  that  they  could  give  themselves  thor- 
oughly to  nothing  else.  So  letting  conquest  and  art 
and  many  other  civilizing  forces  sink  into  subordina- 
tion, they  felt  impelled  in  spite  of  themselves  to  make 
religion  their  mission,  for  it  had  taken  possession  of 
them.  In  spite  of  themselves,  I  say,  urged  by  a  per- 
sistent prompting  within,  they  must  protest  against 
the  worship  of  idols,  the  worship  of  matter,  the  wor- 
ship  of    men,  Schhna    Yisrael   became   henceforth    their 


578  Judaism  and  uNitarianism. 

watch-cry,  in  the  synagogue  certainly,  but  if  necessary, 
also  in  the  Roman  amphitheater,  at  the  stake,  on  the 
torture-rack,  in  the  dungeons  of  the  Inquisition,  in 
York  castle,  in  the  ghetto,  in  the  pale  of  settlement — 
everywhere  The  epithet  applied  to  Spinoza  should 
rather  be  ascribed  to  the  race — "God-intoxicated" — 
Hear,  0  Israel,  God  is  one,  there  is  but  one  God; 
He  is  one,  because  He  is  all.  And  thou  shalt  love 
the  Eternal  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart  and  with  all 
thy   soul   and  with   all  thy  might. 

Unitarianism  has  also  a  history  behind  it.  Up  till 
comparatively  recently,  its  history  has  been  the  his- 
tory of  Christianity.  The  Apostles  and  the  Church 
Fathers  are  its  progenitors.  The  Holy  Roman  Empire 
and  the  Reformation  are  great  landmarks  in  its  past. 
The  Arian  movement,  the  Socinian  movement,  the 
Church  synods,  Calvinism,  Puritanism  and  perhaps 
Universalism  indicate  so  many  steps  in  its  growth. 
Unitarianism  has  been  a  development  out  of  Trinita- 
rianism.  Some  Unitarians  claim  that  this  is  not  the 
case,  that  the  earliest  Christians  were  unitarian,  believ- 
ing in  but  one  God  and  accepting  Jesus  only  as 
their  Messiah.  But  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  so 
long  as  that  was  their  belief,  they  were  still  Jews,  a 
sect  within  the  fold,  observing  all  the  ceremonial  law, 
even  anxious  to  wear  the  Tephillin  (phylacteries),  and 
there  are  many  special  injunctions  in  the  Mishna  ap- 
plying only   to   these    Jewish  Christians.*     Not  till   the 

*  Little  that  we  know  of  Jesus,  no  impartial  critic  believes 
for  a  moment  that  he  intended  or  desired  to  found  a  new 
religion  distinct  from  Judaism,  any  more  than  Amos,  Micah 
or  Isaiah,  and  we  may  add  than  any  reformer  who  pleads  for 
the  spirit  as  against  the  letter  of  religion.  He  not  only  lived 
a  Jew,  he  died  a  Jew,  never  for  a  moment  supposing  that 
years  after  his  name  would  be  used  for  the  institution  of  a 
different  faith. 


JUDAISM    AND    UNITAR,IANISM.  279 

temple  was  destroyed,  not  till  Jesus  was  raised  to  a 
divinity  and  the  logos  through  Greek  mysticism  was 
transformed  into  the  Holy  Spirit — the  third  person  of 
the  Trinity — does  this  Jewish  sect  that  had  so  far  only 
believed  that  the  Nazarene  was  Israel's  expected  Mes- 
siah, part  company  from  the  parent  faith  and  become 
a   new   religion — Christianity. 

With  the  growth  of  enlightenment,  with  the  spread 
of  scientific  truth  this  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  has  been 
found  more  difficult  of  acceptance  by  thinking  men 
and  women.  Milton,  Locke  and  Newton  never  could 
believe  it.  Gradually  the  Holy  Spirit  was  rarified  into 
an  influence,  gradually  the  "Son  of  God"  was  ex- 
plained away  in  a  figure  of  speech,  gradually  the 
divine  man  became  the  man  almost  divine.  In  the 
next  stage  he  was  a  man  only  but  with  a  miracu- 
lous birth,  able  to  perform  miracles  and  resurrected 
from  the  grave.  Later  still,  he  is  depicted  as  differing 
from  other  men  only  in  being  better  than  they,  in- 
cluding in  himself  all  human  virtue,  and  free  from  all 
human  sin.  The  later  developments  have  only  tended 
to  make  him  more  natural,  but  still  the  ideal  of  hu- 
manity— the  noblest  man  that  ever  lived,  whose  ex- 
ample is  all-sufficient  for  moral  training  and  human 
advancement. 

This  gradual  decline  of  the  belief  in  his  divinity 
and  the  consequent  falling  away  of  the  doctrines  that 
grew  out  of  it,  is  the  history  of  the  development  of  Un- 
itarianism.  But  why  is  Jesus  still  given  a  unique  place 
in  their  belief  and  ritual,  such  as  they  have,  and  in 
their  teachings  generally?  Why  out  of  the  few  meager 
facts  of  doubtful  authenticity  of  but  two  years  of  his 
life,*   as    found    in    the  New  Testament,    is    a    fanciful 


*It    is    even    maintained  by    some  that  the    events  in    the 


^80  .tUDATSM    ANt)    UNTTARTANlsM. 

and  ideal  character  still  created,  probably  as  untru6 
to  history  as  the  divine  idea?  Why  out  of  the  teach- 
ings ascribed  to  him,  which  are  not  original  and  per- 
sonal—but largely  the  teachings  of  his  school,  the  Jew- 
ish Essenes,  a  fact  which  is  being  demonstrated  with 
growing  clearness  from  recent  discoveries — have  they 
thought  fit  to  clothe  him  with  every  noble  quality 
known    to  human   experience? 

Because  the  glamor  of  the  old  belief  is  on  them 
still.  Because  the  influence  of  Christianity  of  which 
they  are  a  part  will  abide  with  them  and  ever  give 
color  to  their  teachings.  They  will  never  be  able  to 
look  on  the  character  of  Jesus  in  the  cold  light  of 
history.  They  will  never  confess  to  any  failings  of 
his;  he  will  never  be  to  them  a  normal  man.  While 
Socrates  may  be  as  noble  or  nobler,  while  Moses  may 
even  excel  him  in  meekness  and  self-renunciation, 
while  the  martyrdom  of  Akiba  is  just  as  thrilling, 
and  the  teachings  of  the  prophets  as  sublime,  while 
their  own  heroes,  Paul,  Huss,  Luther  and  Father 
Damien  may  have  been  just  as  great,  as  far  as  we 
can  compare  human  characters  at  all  from  our  occa- 
sional  glimpses    and    rough   approximations — they    will 


Gospels  cover  but  six  months  of  his  life.  The  silence  of 
contemporary  history  about  him  is  more  than  strange,  it  is 
significant.  Philo-Judeus,  sometimes  called  ''the  elder  brother 
of  Jesus,"  because  of  the  similarity  of  their  teachings,  does 
not  mention  him  personally  though  he  survived  him.  The 
father  of  Josephus,  from  whom  the  historian  obtained  so 
many  of  his  details,  though  he  was  a  contemporary  of  Pon- 
tius Pilate  and  lived  in  the  heart  of  these  scenes,  has  nothing 
to  state  about  him.  At  this  late  day  it  is  needless  to  say  that 
the  one  isolated  paragraph  about  him  in  Josephus,  is  a  for- 
gery. Finally  Menelaus  of  Damascus  and  Justus  of  Samaria, 
contemporary   writers,   also  refrain  from   mentioning  him. 


JtJDAISk   AND    UNiTARIANTSM.  28 1 

never  be  able  to  bring  themselves  to  acknoAvleclge  it, 
even  though  in  their  exaggerated  estimate,  they  may 
do  injustice  to  many  of  the  world's  heroes.  The  divine 
man  in  some  sense,  he  will  always  be  to  them,  for  this 
is  their  inheritance  from  Christianity  that  has  become 
part  of  their  very  being.  He  is  still  the  Master,  with 
a  capital  M.  Even  with  those  Unitarians,  who  doubt 
God,  who  are  agnostic — the  worship  of  Jesus  abides. 
Here  we  see  that  force  of  sentimental  association  and 
historic  background  in  religious  life.  It  is  true  a  bold 
statement  was  made  by  a  Unitarian.  "We  must  get 
outside  of  Christianity  in  order  to  teach  the  truth 
which  Jesus  did  not  teach,  and  to  practice  the  good 
he  did  not  enjoin."  But  it  is  immediately  met  by 
the  disappointing  but  not  unexpected  reply :  "Chris- 
tianity has  no  outside ;  the  spirit  of  Jesus  is  the 
spirit  of  free  progress,  in  that  name  we  can  go  on  to- 
ward  perfection  for   ever." 

Reform  Judaism  and  Unitarianism  are  distinct  re- 
ligions— because  of  these  historic  and  sympathetic  di- 
vergences which  react  both  on  doctrine  and  on  prac- 
tice. For  that  matter,  Mohammedanism  is  a  Unitar- 
ianism too ;  and  Mohammed  was  very  surprised  and 
disappointed  that  the  Jews  would  not  accept  it,  since  it 
was  so  largely  Jewish.  We  appeal  to  the  testimony  of 
history  whether  Judaism  was  justified  in  not  permit- 
ting itself  to  be  absorbed  by  its  second  daughter. 
Israel's  intense  monotheism  could  never  compromise 
with  hero-worship —whether  of  Jesus  or  Mahomet. 
While  the  fact  that  Jesus  is  really  God  for  half  the 
world,  is  in  itself  sufficient  to  exclude  him  from  the 
synagogue.  Even  Moses,  whom  he  is  made  to  sup- 
plant, is  treated  as  but  one  in  the  line  of  great  men 
that  remind  Hebrews  they  can  make  their  lives 
sublime.     While    Judaism,    like    Unitarianism,    has    al- 


282  JUDAISM   AND    UNITARIANISM. 

ways  evaded  the  limitations  of  a  creed*  giving  the 
mind  full  breadth  of  thought,  the  doctrine  of  the 
One  God  has  always  been  regarded  as  a  sine  qua 
noil  of  Judaism,  so  that  an  agnostic  wing  of  our 
fiith    Nvould   be  impossible. 

Although  Unitarianism  then  is  a  distinct  faith  from 
Judaism,  and  can  teach  it  nothing,  and  indeed  has 
no  new  truth  to  teach  the  world  at  large,  being  in 
itself  but  an  eclectic  gathering  of  modern  teachings 
and  beliefs,  still  it  can,  and  through  the  spread  of 
its  literature,  it  is  rendering  a  beneficent  service  to 
orthodox  Christianity  by  holding  up  to  it  a  more 
rational  and  liberal  ideal — a  service  it  would  be  less 
likely  to  effect  did  it  cut  itself  adrift  from  the  old 
moorings  and  start  as  a  new  religion.  In  the  same 
way  reform  Judaism  is  rendering  a  similar  service  to 
orthodox  Judaism,  in  loyally  standing  under  the  banner 
of  the  old  faith  and  in  regarding  all  its  modern  de- 
partures as  unbroken  and  organic  developments  from 
our   ancient   creed. 

But  partly  for  the  reason  that  it  lacks  the  organiza- 
tion and  symbolic  ceremonial  of  a  church,  partly  be- 
cause of  the  uncertainty  of  its  belief,  partly,  perhaps, 
because  of  its  very  vague  requirements  of  its  members, 
and  because  it  seems  to  represent  nothing  positive  and 
to  teach  nothing  that  was  not  already  taught  before 
it  came — it  has  not  grown  in  public  confidence  and 
hence  in  numbers,  to  anything  like  the  extent  of  other 
denominations.  It  is  an  indication  of  some  fatal  weak- 
ness when  a  faith  appeals  to  a  cultured  few,  who  least 
need  its  discipline,  and  does  not  reach  the  masses. 
But    even   among  the   cultured,  it    is  a  significant   fact 


*So  many  have  repeated  Mendelsohn's  statement,  that; 
Judaism  has  no  dogmas,  that  it  has  become  a  dogma  it-' 
self — the  dogma    of  dogmalessness. 


JUDAISM  AND    UNITARIANISM.  283 

that  two  of  its  greatest  representatives  in  America, 
Emerson  and  Frotliingham,  left  the  Unitarian  Church. 
Why?  Because  it  either  meant  too  much  or  too  lit- 
tle. If  too  much— they  could  not  pledge  themselves 
to  the  acceptance  of  any  beliefs  of  which  they  had  a 
lingering  doubt;  if  too  little — there  was  no  object  in 
placing  themselves  under  that  particular  banner.  That 
is  where  too  broad  a  platform  may  defeat  itself.  If  I 
am  to  be  so  untrammeled  that  I  can  believe  or  disbe- 
lieve anything  I  please,  apart  from  the  implied  desire 
to  further  the  general  human  good,  which  is  the 
back  bone  of  every  true  and  genuine  religion,  a  dis- 
tinctive name  seems  unnecessary. 

A  religion  is  helpful  in  the  sense  in  which  religion 
should  be  helpful,  to  the  extent  that  it  stands  for 
something   distinct   and   positive. 

While  then  we  feel  the  value  for  the  cause  of  truth 
of  stating  minutely  the  difference  between  Judaism  and 
Unitarianism,  where  the  latter  seems  to  fall  short  for 
us,  we  are  glad  to  recognize  an  intellectual  kinship 
growing  out  of  similarities  that  also  exist  between 
them.  And  so  we  will  go  on  our  different  ways,  with 
kindly  thoughts  for  each  other  and  with  occasional 
friendl}''  interchange  of  views.  We  feel  nothing  but 
admiration  for  the  boldness  and  sincerity  of  the  Unita- 
rians and  for  their  manifest  honesty  of  purpose,  even 
while  we  sadly  realize  the  insufficiency  of  their  creed. 
As  a  further  cause  for  good  feeling  between  us,  I  am 
glad  to  speak  here  of  our  grateful  indebtedness  to 
Mr.  Fox,  of  London,  who,  in  the  early  part  of  the 
century  worked  hard  both  in  and  out  of  Parliament 
for  the  removal  of  Jewish  disabilities.  He  uttered 
some  strong  words  in  our  behalf  and  in  condemna- 
tion of  our  enemies.  Let  me  close  with  a  word  of 
thankful  acknowledgment  of   what  we   all    owe  to    the 


284  Judaism  And  unitartanism. 

fine  thouglits  of  those  great  Unitarians —Channing, 
Martineau  and  Parker.  May  many  souls  for  many 
years  to  come  draw  inspiration  from  their  living 
words. 


CONGRATULATORY    ADDRESS. 


DELIVERED   AT    THE    DEDICATION    OF     THE    TEMPLE    OF     THE 

NORTH    CHICAGO    HEBREW    CONGRIiGATION, 

BY     RABBI    JOSEPH    STOLZ. 


On  behalf  of  the  sister  congregations  of  this  city  I 
beg  to  extend  cordial  congratulations  to  this  North  Chi- 
cago Hebrew  Congregation,  its  rabbi,  its  officers  and 
directors,  its  members  and  pewholders  and  all  who 
with  money,  goodwill  and  loving  labor  contributed  to- 
wards the  erection  of  this  inviting  religious  home. 
Owing  to  the  sectional  divisions  of  our  wide-spreading 
city,  the  rapid  change  in  the  character  of  our  streets 
and  the  great  Chicago  fire,  you  have  had  extraordinary 
difficulties  to  contend  with;  but  nothing  daunted,  you 
have,  in  a  period  of  financial  depression,  by  dint  of 
courage  and  faith  in  the  future,  succeeded  in  erecting 
on  this  beautiful  street  this  attractive  house  dedicated 
to  the  worship  of  God  and  the  eternal  spirit  of  Juda- 
ism. It  has  cost  you  many  sacrifices;  but  that  which 
is  not  worth  a  sacrifice  is  not  worth  having;  that  for 
which  men  will  not  make  a  sacrifice  cannot  stand  or 
prosper.  Judaism  survived  because  there  were  those 
who  made  unparalleled  sacrifices  for  it;  let  the  men 
and  woinen  of  Israel  cease  to  forget  themselves  and 
Judaism  will  cease  to  be,  no  matter  how  much  it  ma^ 

(285) 


286  CONGRATULATORY   ADDRESS. 

deserve  to  live.  That  is  the  law  of  the  universe.  The  A 
strength  of  the  Catholic  Church  lies  not  in  its  hierarchy 
and  not  in  its  wealth  or  political  power;  it  lies  in  the 
abounding  sacrifices  which  they  are  capable  of  making 
for  their  church  who  swear  allegiance  to  the  Roman 
Pontificate.  The  remarkable  growth  of  the  Salvation 
Army  under  our  very  eyes  is  not  due  to  its  teachings 
or  its  methods ;  but  in  spite  of  these  it  has  taken  root 
and  grown  to  such  vast  proportions  because  self-sacri- 
fice is  the  sunshine  and  fine  rain  that  makes  any  in- 
stitution grow  strong. 

You  have  reason  this  day  to  feel  a  just  pride  in 
your  achievement.  May  this  temple  ever  be  an  inspir- 
ation in  your  prosperity,  a  consolation  in  your  sorrow; 
may  it  give  hope  to  your  youth  and  support  to  your 
old  age;  may  it  cast  light  upon  your  darkness  and 
through  its  association  with  the  deepest  experiences  of 
your  soul  and  the  richest  events  of  your  life  become 
dear  to  you  as  a  home. 

But  upon  the  completion  of  this  the  sixth  Reform 
Temple  in  this  city,  there  is  cause  for  rejoicing  far 
beyond  these  confines.  It  is  a  triumph  of  Reform 
Judaism  as  it  has  found  expression  in  America  that 
we  are  celebrating  to-day.  The  principles  underlying 
reform  Judaism  were  first  enunciated  and  expounded 
in  Germany.  It  was  the  Jews  whose  cradle  rested  on 
German  soil  that  carried  those  principles  to  this  coun- 
try; but  it  was  in  America  and  not  in  Germany  that 
those  principles  were  most  unequivocally  expressed  and 
most  consistently  carried  out.  Practically  and  officially 
German  Judaism  to-day  is  orthodox.  The  German 
synagogue  is  pre-eminently  oriental,  though  the  Ger- 
man Jew  is  thoroughly  occidental  in  his  life,  thought 
and  activity.  It  was  in  this  youthful  land — and  espe- 
cially  in    this    youthful    west    where    the    conservative 


CONGRATULATORY   ADDRESS.  287 

spirit  is  not  yet  strong  and  the  thought  of  the  peoi)le 
does  not  yet  run  in  fixed  grooves  and  along  certain 
well-defined  channels, —that  within  the  synagogue  as 
well  as  without,  in  practice  as  well  as  theory,  Reform 
Judaism  has  found  the  most  consistent  interpretation. 
Of  course,  the  results  have  not  been  all  that  was  antici- 
pated. We  can  indeed  point  to  magnificent  temples? 
to  the  finest  charities  in  the  world,  to  a  better  appreci- 
ation and  a  sincerer  recognition  of  the  Jew,  to  a  freer 
and  a  more  cordial  relationship  between  Jew  and  non- 
Jew,  to  a  free  pulpit  and  an  outspoken  declaration  to 
the  world  of  the  claims  and  rights  of  Judaism,  to  a 
greater  consistency  between  the  synagogue  and  life,  to 
a  better  understanding  of  our  religion  and  a  greater 
willingness  to  be  Jews.  If  we  have  not  accom- 
plished all  that  enthusiasts  expected,  that  is  not  the 
fault  of  reform  principles.  Orthodoxy  has  fared  nmch 
worse;  and  if,  with  the  life  and  with  the  trend  of 
thought  of  our  country,  our  synagogues  had  remained 
officially  orthodox,  there  would  have  been  a  greater  de- 
sertion and  a  worse  apostasy  in  our  land  than  ever  was 
known  in   Berlin  five  decades  ago. 

Reform  Judaism  has  been  suffering  from  a  peculiar 
concatenation  of  circumstances.  The  transition  from 
the  conservative  life  and  thought  of  a  German  vil- 
lage to  the  progressive  life  and  thought  of  an  Amer- 
ican city  was  too  sudden  and  too  insufficiently  pre- 
pared  for   not   to   leave   its   evil   effects. 

The  general  life  of  these  three  decades  has  not 
been  favorable  to  religion.  The  spirit  of  the  age,  the 
whole  force  and  pressure  of  the  time,  is  not  ideal- 
istic. Ours  is  an  era  of  material  progress,  of  useful 
inventions,  of  great  practical  ambitions  and  achieve- 
ments. We  have  annihilated  space  and  time  and 
made   force  and   matter  our   docile   servants  :   and  these 


288  CONGRATULATORY   ADDRESS. 

accomplishments  have  reacted  upon  our  own  spirits. 
They  have  imbued  us  with  mechanical  modes  of 
thought  and  material  standards  of  deeds  and  have 
almost  produced  a  spiritual  paralysis.  Literature  and 
art  are  degenerate.  Business  is  selfish.  Patriotism 
since  the  war  has  become  sordidly  selfish.  Social  life 
is  selfish.  Wealth  is  the  standard  of  good  society. 
An  idealist  is  considered  a  crank.  Men  barter  the 
glories  of  the  universe  for  the  few  trinkets  they  call 
riches.  The  main  study  of  the  average  man  of  the 
street  is  bread  and  butter;  and  if  no  winged  crea- 
tures are  hatched  from  such  a  chrysalis  and  the 
study  of  the  Thorah  has  become  almost  a  lost  art,  and 
the  Jewish  father's  highest  ambition  no  longer  is  that 
his  gifted  son  shall  be  a  rabbi  in  Israel, — the  fault 
lies  principally  with  the  materialistic  trend  of  the 
times  and    not   with   reform   principles. 

The  thought  of  the  period,  too,  has  been  anti-re- 
ligious. Never  before  has  religion  been  put  to  the 
severe  strain  of  the  last  quarter  of  a  century.  Every 
belief  was  undermined.  One  thing  was  declared  un- 
scientific and  another  unhistorical.  Religion  as  it  was 
systematized  in  the  creed,  religion  as  it  was  described 
in  the  Bible,  religion  as  it  was  practiced  in  cere- 
monies, religion  itself  was  questioned.  The  Bible  was 
questioned,  revelation  was  questioned,  immortalit}'^  was 
questioned,  the  very  existence  of  God  was  questioned, 
and  this  not  by  a  few  scattered  skeptics  but  by  the 
masses.  The  result  was  that  religion  being  such  an 
uncertainty  the  people  were  not  inclined  to  give  the 
church  their  hearty  support;  they  would  not  pray 
if  there  was  no  being  to  hear  prayer;  they  would 
not  send  their  children  to  Sunday-school  if  what 
had  been  taught  them  they  might  later  have  to  un- 
learn,     Religion,   in     short,   was    thought    to    be     good. 


CONGRATULATORY   ADDRESS.  289 

enough  for  superstitious  women  and  fearful  old  people, 
but  nothing  for  strong,  thinking,  active,  free-minded 
men   and   women. 

The  tide  is  fortunately  now  turning.  The  night  is 
already  far  spent  and  the  dawn  is  at  hand.  Balfour's 
"Foundations  of  Belief"  is  a  mile-post  pointing  to- 
wards the  opposite  pole.  Yet,  that  despite  these  over- 
towering  obstacles  you  have  enthusiastically  put  up 
this  grand  temple  is  a  triumph  for  our  American  in- 
terpretation of  Judaism,  and  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Pacific  all  who  are  in  spiritual  bond  with  you  send 
you  a  message  of  congratulation  that  your  measure 
of  life  and  of  truth  has  been  vast  enough  to  make  this 
sacrifice.  A  larger  circle  than  is  bounded  by  the 
two  oceans  rejoices  with  you  to-day, — all  Israel.  It  is 
not  the  walls  of  this  building,  however  beautiful 
their  design  and  charming  their  decoration,  it  is  the 
spirit  for  which  this  building  stands  that  has  gathered 
us  together. 

What  a  miracle  that  without  a  single  bond  of  union 
and  despite  all  persecutions  "  ye  are  standing  to-day  all 
of  you  in  the  presence  of  the  Eternal  your  God  !  "  But 
even  a  greater  miracle  is  it  that  after  3,500  years  there 
should  be  anyone  possessed  of  the  thought  of  rearing 
a  temple  to  the  glory  of  Judaism.  Discredited  are 
the  systems  of  Socrates,  Plato  and  Aristotle;  Dun 
Scotus  and  Albertus  Magnus ;  Maimonides,  Albo 
and  Ibn  Gabirol;  Descartes,  Leibnitz  and  Spinoza; 
Kant,  Hegel  and  Fichte ;  even  Herbert  Spencer's 
system  is  already  discredited,  yea,  during  his  own 
lifetime  has  he  partially  retracted  his  own  agnosti- 
cism. The  word  "  agnosticism "  is  just  twenty-five 
years  old ;  to-day  it  is  acknowledged  to  stand  for 
an  "utterly  baseless  dogma."  The  philosophy  of  one 
age     is    rejected     the     next.       The     science     of   to-day 


290  CONGRATULATORY    ADDRESS. 

is  antiquated  to-morrow.  Not  only  is  the  science  of 
the  Greeks  ludicrous  and  that  of  the  Middle  Ages 
puerile,  but  Weissman  refutes  Darwin  and  Romanes 
goes  back  on  himself.  The  religion  of  Greece  furnishes 
our  children  their  fairy  tales ;  the  religion  of  Egypt  and 
Assyria  is  the  archaeological  pastime  of  the  chosen  few 
at  the  universities;  and  yet  those  old  patriarchs  who 
wore  turban  and  tallith,  who  carried  their  burdens 
on  the  backs  of  asses,  who  conveyed  news  by  her- 
alds, who  spent  weeks  in  traveling  from  Dan  to  Beer- 
Sheba,  who  fought  with  sling-shots,  who  ploughed  the 
ground  with  a  stick  and  threshed  their  wheat  with  a 
flail,  who  conducted  their  business  by  barter  and  paid 
their  wages  every  night  and  sent  to  Tyre  for  mechan- 
ics, who  depended  upon  witnesses  to  announce  the 
appearance  of  the  new  moon  and  who  preserved  their 
literature  by  word  of  mouth — interpreted  the  religious 
yearnings  of  the  soul  and  the  summons  to  duty  so 
correctly  that  we,  with  our  Republican  institutions,  our 
schools  and  libraries,  our  telegraphs  and  telephones, 
our  railroads  and  electric  lights,  our  gatling  guns  and 
men-of-war,  our  printing-presses  and  threshing  ma- 
chines, can  still  say  to  them  >n^«  ^jTI^^ ''Dj;  ItDp  "  your 
religion  is  our  religion  !  " 

Not  Homer  or  Horace,  not  Shakespeare  or  Burns, 
not  Goethe  or  Schiller,  not  Moliere  or  Lamartine,  not 
Dante  or  Petrarch,  or  any  other  a,uthor  is  read  in  his 
own  country  or  cherished  by  his  own  countrymen  as 
is  to-day  the  literature  of  those  Bedouins  that  2,500 
years  ago  and  more  trod  the  plains  of^,the  Jordan 
and  climbed  the  hills  of  Lebanon.  That,  too,  sounds 
miraculous.  But  greater  still  is  the  miracle  that  the 
most  advanced  religious  thought  of  to-day  is  the 
thought  and  inspiration  of  old  Israel.  The  essence  of 
Judaism   is  taking  possession  of  the  best  spirits  of  the 


CONGRATULATORY    ADDRESS.  291 

world.  The  modern  passion  for  social  justice  is  Bibli- 
cal. Prof.  Felix  Adler  confessed  that  his  movement  was 
nothing  more  than  the  movement  of  the  prophets- 
The  Congress  of  Liberal  Religions,  if  rightly  under- 
stood, is  but  a  fulfilment  of  the  prayer  every  ortho- 
dox Jew  has  been  repeating  thrice  daily  for  a  thou- 
sand years.  Oh,  if  we  only  had  faith  in  ourselves,  the 
enthusiastic  appreciation  of  our  heritage,  a  consciousness 
of  the  spiritual  wealth  of  our  symbols,  of  the  strong 
foundation  of  our  history,  of  the  sanity  of  our  "Welt- 
anschauung," we  would  not  to-day  be  lagging  behind, 
we  would  be  in  the  vanguard;  we  would  not  be  the 
caboose  with  the  green  flag  hanging  out  warning  oth- 
ers to  keep  away,  we  would  be  the  engine  equipped 
with  the  spiritual  force  to  lead  and  guide  others  to 
the  coveted  goal.  The  thought  of  the  world  is  with 
us  now  as  it  has  never  been  before.  Prophetical  are 
the  cry  for  ethics  and  the  clamor  for  social  regen- 
eration now  in  the  air;  prophetical  is  the  liber- 
alism that  despises  creed  and  looks  beyond  the  cere- 
monial and  the  temporary  to  the  righteous  and  the 
lasting ;  and  if  we  but  devoted  ourselves  to  our  reli- 
gion with  the  intensity  of  passion  with  which  we  throw 
our  souls  into  our  business  and  professions,  if  we  were 
but  ready  to  make  for  the  congregation  the  sacrifice 
we  make  for  our  clubs  and  our  charities,  Israel  would 
to-day -be  the  engine,  and  to  Judaism  there  would  flock 
converts  even  more  than  lOpO  years  ago  flocked  to 
Israel'' in  Palestine  and  Asia  Minor  and  way  down  in 
Rome. 


FAITH  WITH  REASON. 


BY    RABBI   JOSEPH    KRAUSKOPF,    D.D.,      PHILADELPHIA. 


Man  is  not  worse  than  he  has  been,  nor  as  bad. 
If  we  know  more  of  evils  done  than  our  ancestors 
knew,  it  is  because  we  have  better  means  for  knowing. 
A  single  electric  wire  stretching  across  our  continent, 
a  single  cable  spanning  the  ocean,  will  communicate, 
in  one  day,  more  news  of  crimes  committed  than 
could,  in  a  year,  all  the  carts  and  ships,  all  the  riders 
and   runners,  a   century   or  two   ago. 

Yes,  man  is  better  than  he  has  been,  but  truth  also 
bids  me  to  add,  that  he  is  not  as  good  as  he  ought 
to  be.  That  with  all  the  progress  he  has  made  in 
the  arts  and  sciences  and  liberties,  with  all  the 
knowledge  he  has  acquired  of  the  curse  and  conse- 
quence of  evil,  with  all  the  teaching  that  is  being 
done  on  the  benefits  of  right-living,  the  press  must 
still  dish  up  for  us,  at  every  morning  and  evening 
meal,  such  a  revolting  mass  of  crime,  is  a  matter  of 
serious   concern. 

I  am  even  of  the  opinion  that  it  is  a  severer  judg- 
ment on  mankind  of  to-day  to  say,  that  it  is  not  as 
good  as  it  ought  to  be,  than  that  it  is  not  as  bad  as 
it  was.  The  past  had  a  better  palliative  for  having 
been  as  bad  as  it  was,  than  has   the  present  for  not 


FAITH   WITH   REASON.  293 

being  better  than  it  is.  And  the  moralist  has  better 
grounds  for  complaint.  When  a  farmer  spends  much 
labor  and  means  upon  the  cultivation  of  a  field,  and 
finds  that  the  yield  from  it  is  but  slightly  better  than 
it  was  before  he  spent  a  wealth  of  work  and  money 
upon  it,  he  feels  more  discouraged  than  he  was  at 
first.  When  a  teacher  expends  much  thought  and  pa- 
tience and  time  upon  the  education  of  a  pupil,  and 
notes  but  very  slight  improvements,  he  feels  disheart- 
ened over  the   poor  result. 

Farmers  or  teachers  of  such  experiences  generally 
throw  up  their  work,  and  direct  their  attention  to 
things  that  promise  more  satisfactory  returns.  The 
wiser  among  them,  however,  persevere  till  they  have 
studied  out  the  disturbing  cause,  and,  remedying  it, 
obtain  at  last  the  desired   result. 

This  latter  course  must  be  that  of  our  teachers  of 
morality,  if  they  would  overcome  the  frightful  amount 
of  evil,  which  festers  uncontrolled  on  the  very  surface 
of  society,  and  which,  penetrating  its  every  artery  and 
channel,  poisons  the  whole  system,  down  to  its  very 
life-giving,  life-quickening  centers. 

As  one  of  these  teachers,  I  have  for  some  time  past 
studied  the  question  of  modern  evils,  and  traced  the 
disturbing  causes  that  prevent  morality's  fiillest  growth 
and  fruition.  I  have  pondered  on  the  unprecedented 
means  at  man's  command  for  knowing  the  difference 
between  right  and  wrong.  Never  before  have  schools 
been  so  abundant  and  so  well  equipped.  Never  since 
the  ken  of  man  have  the  printing-houses  and  book- 
stores sent  into  the  homes  of  the  people,  from  the 
highest  to  the  lowest,  from  the  most  learned  to  the 
most  simple,  such  vast  supplies  of  books,  magazines 
and  papers  of  such  an  elevated  moral  tone,  as  now. 
Never    since    society   exists,   has    man   had  as   clear    a 


294  J*AlTH  WitH   REASOl^. 

grasp  of  the  unity  of  human  kind,  and  of  the  obliga- 
tion each  individual  member  of  it  owes  to  himself,  to 
his  family,  to  his  descendents,  to  his  fellow-men,  to 
his  government,  to  humanity,  as  at  present.  Not  even 
in  the  much-sung  golden  ages  of  the  past  has  man 
had  so  inspiring  a  view  of  the  grandeur  of  the  uni- 
verse, and  of  the  marvelousness  of  the  laws  and  forces 
and   intelligences  that   pervade  it,  as  he  has   now. 

And  yet,  unless  my  researches  greatly  deceive  me, 
never  before  has  man  drawn,  proportionally,  as  little  for 
his  stock  of  morality  from  the  sources  at  hand  as  in 
this  present  era.  Morally  he  is  still  diseased.  He  has 
risen  from  his  sick-bed,  only  to  hobble  about,  w^oe- 
fully  plastered  and  bandaged,  on  crutches,  with  little 
hope  of  a  speedy  cure.  I  cannot  ascribe  ignorance  as 
cause  of  his  painfully  slow  recovery, — he  knows  more 
than  ever  before.  I  cannot  attribute  it  to  a  greater^ 
sway  of  the  lower  passions, — he  is  further  removed  . 
from  the  beast  than  ever  before.  I  cannot  assign  as 
cause  of  it  greater  temptations  to  wrong-doing  on  ac- 
count of  greater  poverty, — he  is  wealthier  than  ever 
before.  I  cannot  account  for  it  on  the  ground  of 
greater  restraint  from  right-doing. — he  is  freer  than 
ever  before.  I  can  ascribe  his  slow  recovery  to  one 
cause  only:  to  lesser  faith  in  God,  to  a  lesser  belief 
that  life  is  of  Divine  origin  and  has  a  Divine  destiny, 
and  that  in  the  unfolding  process  of  man's  spiritual 
life,  every  wrong  will  count,  and  every  stain  will 
taint. 

Plad  the  rational  faith  of  former  times  allied  itself 
with  our  modern  superior  reason,  it  would  long  since 
have  turned  this  vale  of  misery  into  a  Paradise. 
Peace  would  have  spread  its  golden  pinions  unto  the 
ends  of  the  earth.  Swords  would  have  been  beaten 
into  plowshares,  and  spears  into  pruning-hooks.     Stand- 


FAITH   WITH   REASON.  295 

ing  armies  would  have  been  scattered  as  husbandmen 
over  the  face  of  the  earth.  Wastes  would  have  been 
turned  into  garden  spots,  and  wildernesses  into  fertile 
fields.  We  would  not  have  had  the  pampered  rich  to 
breed  discontent,  nor  the  starving  poor  to  be  tempted 
into  crime.  We  would  not  have  heard  the  weeping 
of  the  overworked,  nor  the  lamentations  of  the  under- 
paid. Arsenals  would  have  been  turned  into  churches, 
and  penitentiaries  into  schoolhouses,  and  barracks 
into  workshops.  The  love  of  God  and  man  would 
have  filled  the  earth,  even  as  the   waters  fill  the  sea. 

But  it  is  a  different  picture  that  surrounds  us  now. 
It  is  a  picture  of  carnage  on  battlefield  and  in  work- 
shop. It  is  a  picture  of  outrage  in  palace  and  in 
hovel.  It  is  a  picture  of  thievery  in  council-chamber 
and  on  the  public  highway.  It  is  a  picture  of  club- 
bing policemen,  of  law-defying  lynchers,  of  murdering 
rioters.  Nation  stands  in  arms  against  nation.  Class 
stands  with  drawn  sword  against  class.  Employers  and 
employees  have  their  hands  on  each  other's  throats. 
Warship  after  warship,  costing  millions  of  dollars,  is 
built  to  rot  in  the  water,  while  for  the  eradication  of 
the  slums,  in  which  thousands  of  innocent  human 
!  beings  are  rotting  away,  and  which  menace  and  at- 
tack the  health  and  lives  of  countless  thousands  of 
others,  thei'e  is  not  a  penny  to  be  had.  Fraud  sits  at  the 
side  of  the  magistrate,  infidelity  at  the  side  of  the 
oath-administering  court-official,  deception  sits  between 
friend  and  friend,  between  brother  and  brother,  be- 
tween husband  and  wife.  Children  with  inbred  dis- 
ease point  their  finger  of  scorn  at  their  parents. 
Hardy  sons  of  toil,  with  starving  wives  and  children 
at  their  heels,  go  from  door  to  door  in  search  of  labor, 
only  to  be  turned  away,  to  have  the  dog  set  on  them, 
till    they     finally     land    in    a   convict's    cell,   or   die   a 


iTt: 


296  FAITH   WITH   REASON. 

suicide's  death.  Women  of  fashion  and  luxury  read 
of  their  sisters'  wants  and  miseries,  near  their  very 
doors,  and  yet  continue  undisturbed  their  revels  of 
extravagance.  Men  are  so  absorbed  in  their  devotion 
to  the  God  of  Mammon  as  to  have  no  eye,  no  ear  for 
suffering  humanity.  A  feverish  thirst  for  money, 
power,  fame,  rank  has  so  violently  seized  upon  the 
masses,  that,  in  their  frenzied  hurry  to  gratify  it, 
honor,  principle,  integrity  are  trampled  down  as  if  they 
were   so    many    weeds. 

The  close  student  of  human  nature  has  little  diffi- 
culty to  trace  the  secret  spring,  which,  through  a  thou- 
sand different  fissures,  makes  its  way,  with  ever-in- 
creasing force,  to  our  life-centers,  and  there  forms  the 
noisome  pools  of  our  modern  evils.  Its  name  is  Ir- 
religion.  Morality  has  lost  its  divine  authority,  duty 
its  sanctity,  sorrow  and  sacrifice  their  hope.  People 
have  thrust  aside  their  God.  To  be  sure,  there  are 
abundant  churches,  and  frequent  services,  and  large 
congregations.  But  man}^  more  attend  to  satisfy  social 
requirements  than  real  religious  cravings.  Often,  when 
I  see  them  gathered  for  worship,  and  observe  their 
attitudes  and  attentions,  I  feel  like  putting  the  ques- 
tion to  them  which  the   queen  put  to   Hamlet : 

"Alas  !  How  is  it  with  you 

That  you  do  bend  your  eye  on  vacancy, 

And  with  the  incorporeal  air  do  hold  discourse  ?" 

Hamlet,  at  least,  saw  a  ghost ;  they  see  nothing  of  a 
supernatural  kind.  The  brilliant  light  that  science 
has  suddenly  turned  upon  them  has  dazzled  and  dazed 
them.  The  more  the  large  end  of  the  telescope  has 
revealed  of  the  marvelous  handiwork  of  God,  the  more 
contracted  has  become  the  small  end's  view  of  God 
Himself.     The   All-seeing   Eye,   of  which    the    Psalmist 


FAiTtt    WITH    SEASON.  ^9? 

sang  that  it  "slumbereth  not,  nor  sleepeth,"  is  closed. 
The  twinkling  stars  no  longer  breathe  a  message  of  a 
yonder  sphere.  The  sprouting  buds  of  the  early 
spring  no  longer  kindle  a  hope  of  another  sprouting 
in  another  world.  The  ray  of  divinity  in  the  infant's 
eye  is  no  longer  the  fading  hue  of  a  celestial  light 
that  has  preceded.  The  hallow  light  that  shines  upon 
the  dying  patriarch's  brow,  no  longer  suggests  that  sun- 
set here  may  mean  sunrise  elsewhere.  Great,  gloomy 
gates  have  been  reared  at  the  grave,  and  on  them 
have  been  written  the  soul-deadening  words:  ''So  far, 
and  no  farther !  All  there  is  of  life  is  this  side  the 
grave.  Beyond  it  there  is  nothing.  Life  is  a  bubble, 
puffed  by  the  lips  of  chance  into  space,  where  it 
dances  and  glitters  its  brief  moment,  and  then  bursts 
into  nothingness.  Wise  are  they,  who  crowd  into  that 
brief  moment  the  most  of  happiness."  And  eagerly 
men  accept  this  teaching.  Happiness  is  their  goal.  If 
truth  and  right  and  honor  and  justice  stand  in  the 
way  of  its  attainment,  why  should  these  not  be  cast 
aside,  when  there  is  no  God  to  see  it,  no  God  to 
render   account   to? 

It  is  the  custom  of  many  preachers,  when  they 
reach  this  point  in  their  lamentations,  to  inflict  a 
severe  tongue-lashing  on  modern  unbelievers,  to  whose 
doors  they  lay  much  of  the  responsibility  for  our  mod- 
ern evils.  Ground  for  vexation  to  a  godly  man,  I 
admit  there  is  enough.  But  abuse  is  not  the  wisest 
method  to  rid  society  of  godlessness.  You  can  as  little 
scold  people  into  faith,  as  you  can  scold  people  into 
love.  Unbelievers  resent  abuse.  They  may  listen  to 
reason.  My  dealings  with  some  of  them  have  assured 
me,  that  most  of  them  are  more  willing  to  have  faith 
with  reason  than  preachers  are  willing  or  capable  of  giv- 
ing to  them.     I  have  enjoyed  the  confidences  of  sonie  of 


298  FAtTH   WITH    REASON. 

these  decried  unbelievers.  I  have  heard  them  envy  peo- 
ple of  strong  faith.  I  have  heard  them  say  :  "Oh,  if 
you  could  give  me  that  trusting  faith  of  some  of  the 
believers  I  know,  that  uplifting,  strengthening,  comfort- 
ing belief  in  God,  that  abides  the  same  in  sunshine 
and  in  storm,  in  life  and  death,  that  sees  Divine  Love 
in  the  most  cruel  blow,  and  Divine  Purpose  in  the 
most  apparent  accident,  that  sees  the  eye  of  God  upon 
them  in  the  light  and  in  the  darkness,  and  feels  the 
guiding  hand  of  God  upon  them  in  their  every  per- 
plexity, and  hears  the  approving  or  rebuking  voice  of 
God  within  their  hearts,  when  they  have  done  right 
or  Avrong;  that  faith,  that  bears  the  tortures  of  the 
sick-bed  without  a  murmur,  that  exclaims  with  Job  : 
'Though  He  slay  me,  yet  will  I  trust  in  Him';  that 
faith  that  looks  down  into  the  grave  without  a  shud- 
der, and  up  into  heaven  without  a  doubt ;  give  me  that 
faith,  make  it  tangible,  reasonable,  demonstrable  to  me, 
and   3^ou  will   make   of  me  the  happiest  of  mortals." 

How  wrong  in  preachers  to  censure  men  possessed 
of  such  yearnings  after  reasonable  faith !  Probably 
they  have  never  been  rent  or  torn  by  the  piercing 
thorn  of  doubt  or  unbelief.  Probably  they  have  never 
sent  forth  from  their  sleepless  pillow  a  despairing  cry 
for  the  light  and  for  the  truth.  I  have  felt  that  thorn, 
and  I  have  cried  that  cry  of  despair.  I  have  wrestled, 
like  Jacob  of  old,  through  a  long  dark  night,  until  at 
last  the  light  dawned,  until  at  last  the  cheering  rays 
of  the  morning-star  burst  through  the  mists  and  clouds, 
wafting  the  divine  message  :  "Thou  hast  wrestled,  and 
thou    hast    conquered.     Thy   mind   shall    have   peace!" 

It    was    a   comforting   message,  but   it   was    not   sent 
until  I  had  become  clearly   conscious  of  the   limitations  I 
of  human  knowledge,  of  the  duality  of  human   nature. 
My  faith   secured   a  firm   anchorage   only   after    I   had 


F'AITH  WITH  REASON.  299 

fully  grasped  the  truth,  that  knowledge  is  of  two  kinds, 
the  demonstrable  and  the  un demonstrable,  that  which 
can  be  measured  and  weighed,  tested  and  dissected, 
and  that  which  can  only  be  felt,  divined,  that  which 
wells  up  within  us  as  inspiration,  as  prophetic  instinct, 
as  intuition,  that  which  is  a  brain  acquirement,  and 
that  which  is   an   original  soul-endowment. 

Man  is  a  dual  being.  Part  of  him  is  material;  the 
other  and  best  part  is  spiritual.  The  one  part  is  gov- 
erned by  the  mind,  the  other  by  the  soul.  The  one 
employs  reason  as  a  means  of  acquiring  truth,  the 
other  exercises  primary  intuitive  discernment.  The 
reason  compasses  the  realm  of  matter ;  intuitive  discern- 
ment enters  the  sphere  of  the  spirit.  The  one  deals 
with  the  visible  and  the  tangible,  the  other  with  that 
which  eludes  the  grasp  of  the  physical  senses.  The 
one  arrives  at  its  conclusions  only  after  patient  tests 
and  experiments ;  the  other  reaches  them  by  a  single 
bound.  The  one  studies  the  universe,  observes  therein 
design,  harmony,  law,  intelligence,  forethought,  adapta- 
tion of  means  to  ends,  and  postulates  that  some  power 
different  from  any  that  are  known,  must  have  called 
it  forth,  and  must  hold  sway  over  it;  the  other  affirms, 
without  the  aid  of  telescope  or  microscope,  or  scalpel 
or  re-agents,  that  such  a  power  exists,  that  it  is  a  liv- 
ing, conscious  being,  which  has  created  the  universe, 
and  rules  it  as  well  as  the  destiny  of  all  that  live  and 
move  therein.  The  one  observes  that  life  is  not  of  hu- 
man make,  and  that  it  is  under  a  law  of  constant  evo- 
lutionary progression,  and,  applying  its  canons  of  rea- 
soning, concludes  that  man's  present  imperfections  fore- 
shadow still  higher  development.  The  other  asserts,  at 
once  and  strongly,  that  life  is  a  gift  of  God,  and  re- 
turns to  God,  to  take  up  a  higher  form  of  existence,  in 
another  sphere.     The   one  is   perplexed  by  the  myster- 


^00  FAiTH    WlTti    ilEASOl^. 

ies  that  abound,  by  the  happenings  that  are  strange 
and  unaccountable;  the  other  declares  them,  without 
hesitation,  to  be  the  ways  of  Providence,  to  be  the  will 
and  working  of  God,  subserving  divine  ends. 

We  somewhat  understand  how  the  mind  obtains  its 
knowledge,  but  how  and  when  and  where  the  soul  ac- 
quires its  endowments  no  man  can  tell.  The  soul 
Beems  to  enter  upon  its  existence  dowered  with  these 
intuitions  by  its  Divine  Parent,  even  as  the  body  enters 
life  pregnated  with  hereditary  characteristics  of  its  hu- 
man parents.  It  is  an  original  endowment;  and  a  uni- 
versal one  as  well.  The  whole  human  family  has  an 
abiding  faith  in  a  Supreme  Being  governing  the  uni- 
verse, and  guiding  the  destiny  of  man,  in  thQ  divine 
origin  of  life,  and  in  its  continuance  after  death.  It 
is  the  greatest  mystery  and  miracle  of  man's  psychic 
state.  The  mind  cannot  grasp  it,  much  less  prove  it, 
and  still  less  deny  it. 

When  we  consider  the  feebleness  of  the  human  mind 
to  grasp  the  origin  and  nature  of  things,  the  littleness 
of  its  knowledge,  we  begin  to  recognize  a  divine  aid 
and  purpose  in  the  vast  and  bold  sweep  the  soul  takes 
of  the  realm  barred  to  our  physical  senses.  God  en- 
dowed the  soul  with  faith  to  help  the  mind  across 
the  encircling  ocean  of  mystery,  which  impotent  rea- 
son cannot  bridge.  Five  thousand  years,  at  least,  has 
the  mind  been  at  work,  and  in  that  vast  stretch  of 
time  it  has  scarcely  learned  the  A.  B.  C.  of  the  most 
necessary  knowledge.  In  that  time  it  has  scarcely 
learned  to  reason  correctly,  or  to  trust  reliably  to  the 
testimony  of  its  own  senses.  It  has  scarcely  gotten 
beyond  the  elements  of  science.  Its  knowledge  of  the 
laws  of  life  and  health  is  still  fragmentary.  Of  this 
earth,  over  which  it  has  roamed  for  tens  of  centuries, 
it   has   only    a   very   rudimentary   knowledge,   and  this 


FATTH    WITH   REASON.  301 

earth  is  but  a  tiniest  speck  in  the  countless  s)\stems 
of  worlds,  that  spin  with  inconceivable  speed  in  the 
infinitude  of  space.  What  progress  could  reason  have 
made  without  the  aid  of  faith !  There  is  not  a  thing 
it  undertakes  to  comprehend  but  that  faith  must  yoke 
itself  with  it  to  help  it  out.  One  half  of  knowledge 
is  faith ;  the  other  half  is  based  upon  it.  Verily, 
God  has  given  us  faith  to  supplement  the  limitations 
pf  knowledge !  To  it,  much  more  than  to  reason  are 
jwe  indebted  for  the  advance   of  human  kind.      Man's 

I  |faith   is  mankind's   salvation. 

^  It  must  however  be  distinctly  understood  that  the 
word  Faith,  as  here  used,  does  not  stand  for  unrea- 
soning credulity,  for  blind  belief  in  the  dicta  of  men, 
it  stands  solely  for  the  acceptance  of  the  intuitive  dis- 
cernments of  our  own  souls;  not  for  what  we  are  told 
by  the  mouth  of  others,  but  for  what  is  revealed  to  us 
by   our   own   intuitions. 

Faith  supplies  the  deficiencies  of  the  senses.  It  is 
the  complement  of  reason.  Reason  is  verified  obser- 
vation; Faith  is  spiritualized  intuition.  Reason  is 
the  testimony  of  the  mind ;  Faith  is  the  witness  of 
the  soul.  Reason  is  like  the  plodding  of  the  talent; 
Faith  is  like  the  inspiration  of  the  genius.  Reason  is 
the  accumulation  of  the  knowledge  of  the  past ;  Faith 
is  the  prophecy  of  the  knowledge  of  the  future.  Rea- 
son illumines  the  realm  about  us;  Faith  flashes  its 
search-light  beyond  the  unlit  gates.  Reason  is  like 
the  glow  worm's  cold  and  fitful  light;  Faith  is  like  the 
hearthstone's  warm  and  cheering  fire.  Reason  grasps 
the  form ;  Faith  clasps  the  spirit.  Reason  discovers 
the  handiwork;  Faith  discerns  the  Master  behind  it. 
Reason  calculates  and  computes  the  forces  and  energies 
of  things;  Faith  discloses  the  spring  that  moves  them. 
Reason   starts  with    facts     and    ends   in   belief;     Faith 


302  FAITH    WITH    REASON. 

commences   with   belief,  and,  as  Whittier   so   beautifally 
expresses    it, 

"The  steps  of  Faith 
Fall  on  the  seeming  void,  and  find 
The  rock  beneath." 

"What  of  those  who  have  not  faith?"  you  ask.  I 
am  not  so  sure  that  they  have  it  not.  I  believe  that 
faith  throbs  in  every  breast.  In  some  it  is  a  glimmer- 
ing spark  ;  in  others  it  is  a  blazing  flame.  In  some  it 
slumbers  ;  in  others  it  is  actively  awake.  Where  there 
is  a  mind  to  reason,  there  is  a  soul  to  spiritualize.  It 
can  never  be  so  attenuated  but  that  a  thread  will  not 
remain.  And  as  long  as  a  thread  remains  there  is 
hope.  I  have  read,  that,  when  the  first  cable  of  the 
suspension-bridge,  that  now  spans  the  Niagara,  was 
about  to  be  laid,  a  thin  thread  was  attached  to  a  kite 
and  both  sent,  on  a  favoring  wind,  to  the  other  side  of 
the  river.  By  means  of  that  thread,  a  heavier  string 
was  pulled  across,  and  by  it  a  heavier  one  still,  and 
then  a  rope,  and  then  a  tow,  and  then  the  cable,  and 
the  other  parts  of  that  mighty  bridge,  that  enables  the 
people  to  pass  in  safety,  from  one  side  to  the  other,  over 
the  roaring  cataract  beneath.  Let  but  those,  who  doubt 
or  disbelieve,  fasten  the  tiny  thread  of  faith  that  lin- 
gers in  them  still,  to  the  spiritual  side  of  life,  and  grad- 
ually it  will  become  stronger  and  stronger  until  it  will 
grow  into  a  mighty  bridge,  that  will  carry  them  safely, 
over  the  seething  and  hissing  abyss  of  doubts  and  per- 
plexities, unto   the   yonder  peaceful   shore. 

Oh,  ye  of  little  faith,  why  will  you  not  turn  the  tiny 
thread  of  belief  within  you  into  a  mighty  cable,  so  that 
it  may  anchor  you  safely  in  that  spiritual  sea,  where 
unbeliefs  cease  from  troubling,  and  where  infidelities 
are  at  rest?     Do  you  not  see,  how,  for  the  want  of  it, 


FAITH   WITH   REASON.  303 

you  are  drifting  compass-less,  sail-less,  rudder-less,  on 
the  turbulent  waters,  with  a  thousand  gales  of  sin 
and  vice  and  crime  tearing  and  splitting  you  asunder? 
Do  you  not  see  how,  for  the  want  of  it,  society  is  de- 
prived of  the  blessed  fruitage  of  the  best  achievements 
of  the  modern  mind  ?  Have  you  not  the  proofs  of  the 
past  that  the  ages  of  great  faith  were  the  ages  of  great 
achievements?  What  would  the  reformers  and  eman- 
cipators, the  heroes  and  the  martyrs,  the  discoverers 
and  the  inventors  of  the  past  have  done,  without  a 
mighty  living  faith  to  steel  their  arms,  to  light  their 
ways,  to  cheer  their  hearts,  to  buoy  up  their  spirits  in 
stress  and  storm?  And  with  our  mental  superiority 
over  the  past,  what  might  not  our  achievements  be, 
were  our  faith  correspondingly  superior  to  the  faith  of 
the  past,  or  even  equal  to  it? 

Individually,  too,  greater  faith  would  mean  greater 
happiness.  The  divinity  within  us  would  cast  a  hal- 
lowed circle  of  divineness  about  us,  into  which  sin 
could  not  set  its  foot,  without  the  mind  launching  its 
eternal  curse  upon  it.  Duty  would  acquire  the  force 
of  divine  commands.  Morality  would  stand  for  injunc- 
tions divinely  graven  on  the  tablets  of  our  hearts.  God 
would  be  seen  and  felt  in  the  tranquil  dome  above  and 
on  the  troubled  earth  beneath;  in  the  thunder's  mighty 
roar,  and  in  the  mother's  peaceful  lullaby ;  in  the  sun's 
dazzling  fire  and  in  the  spring- flower's  innocent  blush, 
in  the  sigh  of  the  oppressed,  and  in  the  groan  of  the 
oppressor;  in  the  heroism  of  the  martyr,  and  in  the 
cowardice  of  the  traitor ;  in  the  boldness  of  the  reformer, 
and  in  the  modesty  of  the  maiden;  in  the  ecstasy  of 
the  inspired,  and  in  the  shame  of  the  offender.  Sorrow 
would  mean  to  us  that  the  hand  of  God  is  but  tighten- 
ing the  strings,  that  they  might  give  forth  sweeter  mu- 
sic by  and  by.     Death  would  mean  to  us  only  the  end 


304  FATTH    WITH    REASON. 

of  dying  here,  and  the  commencement  of  living  j^onder, 
the  finish  of  our  material  preparation  and  the  begin- 
ning of  our  spiritual  development.  It  would  enable  us 
to  lay  our  dear  ones  into  the  grave  with  a  resignation 
as  complete  as  that  of  that  mother,  who,  over  the  coffin 
of  the  last  of  all  her  seven  children  dead,  calmly  said : 
"Here  lies  my  seventh  and  last  child.  Here,  too,  lies 
the  will  of  God.  His  will  be  done.  He  knows  best." 
It  will  enable  us,  in  hours  of  extreme  danger  and 
alarm,  when  our  every  effort  has  failed,  to  commit  our 
trust  in  Him  who  guides  our  destiny,  feeling  that  all 
is  not  lost,  as  long  as  there  is  a  God  above  us, — as  that 
captain's  little  daughter  felt,  when  awakened  in  her 
cabin,  in  the  dead  of  night,  by  a  terrific  storm,  and 
when  told  that  her  father  commanded  the  ship,  calmly 
she  replied:  "Father  is  on  the  bridge,  I  am  safe."  And 
even  if  the  waters  swallow  us,  it  will  enable  us  to 
say  with  the  poet: 

"  If  my  bark  sink,  'tis  to  another  sea." 

Faith  will  not  clear  all  our  difficulties,  nor  answer 
all  our  questions.  But  it  will  clear  enough,  and  say 
enough,  to  keep  our  hearts  pure,  our  hands  clean,  our 
eyes  upon  our  goal,  and  our  feet  upon  the  path  leading 
thither.  It  will  not  shed  full  radiance  here  below,  but, 
once  within  its  sanctuary,  through  its  divinely  illum- 
ined windows  it  will  admit  sufficient  light  from  with- 
out to  make  the  daylight  sweeter,  and  in  the  night  it 
will  flash  out  sufficient  light  from  within  to  make  the 
darkness  brighter. 

Though  reason  has  not  yet  opened  our  physical  eyes 
to  enable  us  to  see  what  our  soul  divines,  let  us  thank 
God  for  our  intuitional  discernment  that  helps  us  to 
construct  a  bark  strong  enough  to  sail  in  safety  across 
life's  seas.     What   better  shipbuilders  than   the   Herres- 


FAITH    WITH    REASON.  305 

hoffs,  the  makers  of  the  victorious  Defender?  What 
waters  have  not  carried  their  boats?  What  country  has 
not  felt  itself  honored  in  conferring  medals  and  prizes 
upon  them?  The  head  of  the  firm  is  totally  blind,  and 
has  been  so  for  forty  years.  And  yet,  though  blind, 
he  is  and  has  been  the  first  and  final  authority  of 
every  ship  built  by  that  firm.  A  tiny  model  is  made 
of  the  boat  about  to  be  built,  and  submitted  to  him. 
He  retires  into  seclusion,  and  by  his  marvelously  de- 
veloped sense  of  touch,  obtains  a  complete  mental  pic- 
ture of  the  ship,  and  passes  judgment  upon  it.  In 
forty  years,  his  judgment  has  never  failed  him,  though 
arrived  at  in  the  darkness  of  physical  blindness. 

Faith  is  the  elder  Herreshoff's  marvelous  sense  of 
touch.  It  enables  us  to  see  what  eyes  cannot  see,  and 
to  pass  judgments  that  do  not,  will  not  fail.  Though 
arrived  at  in  the  darkness  of  physical  blindness  it  en- 
ables us  to  construct  a  ship,  which,  if  we  equip  it  with 
reason,  and  steer  it  aright,  will  enable  us  to  win  the 
race  over  evil,  and  land  us  safely  on  the  yonder, 
shore. 


THE  HOPE  OF  IMMORTALITY. 


BY  RABBI  RUDOLPH  GROSSMAN,  D.D.,  NEW  YORK. 


To  the  bedside  of  a  dying  man  let  me  bid  your 
attendance.  The  old  patriarch  Jacob,  who  in  life  had 
vanquished  many  a  bitter  opponent,  has  at  last  suc- 
cumbed to  his  most  formidable  foe,  death.  Children 
and  children's  children  are  gathered  about  the  hal- 
lowed couch.  A  peace  as  of  heaven  nils  the  cham- 
ber in  which  death  kisses  the  lips  of  life.  Forgotten 
is  the  animosity  between  Joseph  and  his  brethren, 
and  the  heart  of  brother  is  knit  to  the  heart  of 
brother,  as  the  last  farewell  of  the  cherished  father 
falls  on  their  ears.  Calmly,  fearlessly,  without  sorrow, 
the  old  patriarch  awaits  the  inevitable  end.  Words 
of  counsel  and  of  blessing  flow  from  his  blanched 
lips.  Before  his  fading  sight  there  arises  the  vision 
of  tlie  future.  With  a  prophet's  eye,  he  describes 
the  coming  career  of  each  of  his  sons,  when  suddenly 
his  strength  iliils  him ;  his  voice  seems  to  grow 
almost  inaudilfle  ;  death  stands  imj^atient  at  hi.s  side ; 
his  moments  are  numbered,  and  gathering  together  all 
his  feeble  strengtli,  the  expiring  p'alriarch  bursts  out 
in  that  one  cry,  that  voices  his  faith  that  death  is 
not  the  end,  that  passing  hence  means  living  yonder, 
'n  "'n*'lp  ■jnyili^''^  "In  Thy  salvation  do  I  trust,  0 
God." 


THE   HOPE   OF   IMMORTALITY.  307 

From  that  distant  day  to  this,  wherever  a  sigh  has 
been  heaved,  wherever  a  tear  has  been  shed  as  the 
last  scene  of  life  has  touched  the  heart  with  its 
awful  solemnity,  the  one  hope  that  has  buoyed  up 
the  drooping  spirit  and  deprived  the  fatal  cup  that 
every  mortal  must  drain  of  its  poison,  has  been  the 
faith  that  found  expression  in  the  words  of  Jacob, 
"In   Thy   salvation  do   I   trust,   0   God." 

It  is  with  considerable  hesitancy  that  I  venture  to 
speak  on  this  question  of  immortality  that  has  so 
long  and  so  deeply  touched  the  heart  of  man. 
Baffled  by  the  grandeur  of  the  theme,  I  feel  my  utter 
helplessness  in  dealing  with  a  subject  that  so  far 
transcends  human  knowledge.  And  yet,  whether  we 
will  or  not,  the  question  confronts  us  on  every  side, 
and  the  feeling  heart  insists  upon  an  answer :  must 
we  abandon  this  great  hope  of  mankind,  this  tower 
of  strength  in  the  hour  of  trial,  this  fountain  of  in- 
spiration  in   the   midst   of  life's   conflicts? 

The  very  first  fact  that  strikes  our  attention  as  we 
look  out  over  the  world's  history,  is  the  absolute 
universality  of  the  belief  in  immortality.  You  may 
find  nations  so  rude,  that  they  live  houseless,  in  dark 
caverns  of  the  earth,  you  may  find  tribes  so  savage, 
that  they  have  neither  raiment,  weapon  or  fire,  but  no- 
where will  you  find  a  nation  without  a  belief  in  im- 
mortal life.  It  is  the  common  creed  of  the  human 
race.  It  is  written  in  the  nature  of  man,  and  written 
so  large  that  the  rudest  nations  have  not  failed  to 
find  and  to  know  it.  It  thrilled  the  heart  of  the 
ignorant  savage  as  he  beheld  his  tribesman  lying  cold 
and  silent  at  his  feet,  struck  by  the  flinty  arrow. 
It  awakened  a  response  in  the  soul  of  the  Egyptian 
forty  centuries  ago.  It  gave  new  hope  to  the  Bud- 
dhist as  he  bewailed   the   misery  of  lif^.     It  lived  in 


308  THE   HOPE   OP   IMMORTALITY. 

the  mind  of  the  Chaldee  and  the  Persian.  It  at- 
tended the  footsteps  of  the  Greek  and  the  Roman. 
From  the  lips  of  all  the  human  race,  whether  stand- 
ing in  the  lowlands  of  barbarism  or  on  the  summit 
of  civilization,  whether  gathered  in  heathen  shrine,  or 
synagogue  or  cathedral  or  mosque,  the  one  cry  has 
ever  resounded,  "In  Thy  salvation  do  I  trust,  O 
God,"  whether  the  God  invoked  be  Jehovah  or  Jupiter 
or   Osiris   or   the   lowest   idol   or   fetish. 

Whence  originated  this  universal  belief?  Not  in 
revelation  or  reason,  not  from  argument  or  observation. 
The  human  race  did  not  sit  down  and  think  it  out; 
did  not  wait  till  logic  or  metaphysics  would  prove  it ; 
did  not  delay  its  belief  till  a  divine  revelation  came 
to  confirm  it.  It  is  an  instinct  inborn  in  man.  It 
awoke  in  the  heart  as  awoke  the  belief  in  God,  the 
love  of  man,  the  sentiment  of  justice,  by  the  spon- 
taneous action  of  the  spirit  within.  Immortalit}'  is  the 
writing  of  God  on  the  soul  of  man;  it  is  a  desire 
that  is  part  of  his  nature,  deep  as  the  foundation  of 
his  being.  Shall  we  believe  that  this  universal  desire, 
constitutionally  and  ineradicably  planted  in  all  men, 
has  no  corresponding  gratification,  is  but  a  cheating 
delusion?  Shall  we  not  rather  regard  it  as  the  silent 
prophecy  of  endless  life?  What  is  thus  in  man  is 
writ  there  by  God,  who  writes  no  lies.  Strange,  in- 
deed, were  it  that  universal  man  had  conceived  the 
thought,  the  expectation  of  a  life  beyond  the  grave,  if 
the  grave  ends  all.  Look  throughout  all  the  domain 
of  nature,  and  for  every  want  you  will  find  ample 
provision;  for  every  instinct  there  is  some  reality  cor- 
responding thereto.  The  plant  seeks  moisture,  and 
behold,  moisture  is.  The  blade  of  grass  yearns  for 
sunlight  and  air,  and  air  and  sunshine  exist.  The 
wants    of  every    fish  that  swimSj    of    ever^    bird   that 


THE   HOPE   OF  IMMORf  ALTTY.  ^09 

flies,  of  every  beast  that  roams,  find  ample  provision 
in  nature.  And  for  man's  material  needs  there 
is  sufficient  supply.  He  is  hungry,  and  the  earth 
teems  with  abundance.  He  is  thirsty,  and  a  spring 
bubbles  at  his  feet.  He  yearns  for  love,  and  love 
answers  his  desire.  Everywhere  the  natural  desire 
in  plant  or  animal  or  man  may  somewhere  find  its 
natural  gratification.  Shall,  in  the  higher  realms  of 
man,  in  the  domain  of  the  mind,  the  heart,  the  soul, 
the  universal  law  break,  and  there  be  no  provision 
for  his  most  essential,  most  ardent  longing?  As  well 
say  that  the  stars  and  planets  spin  and  shine,  drawn 
onward  by  attraction  and  light,  but  that  there  is 
no  central  orb  about  which  they  revolve  and  which 
is  the  source  of  their  light  and  attraction,  as  to 
declare  that  there  is  this  burning  hunger  for  immor- 
tality in  man,  but  there  is  for  him  no  such  exper- 
ience as   an   immortal  life. 

But  hold!  cries  the  materialist  and  skeptic  of  our 
day.  The  night  of  blind  belief  is  ended ;  the  day  of 
clear  reason  has  come.  A  time  there  was  when  au- 
thority was  all-powerful;  to-day,  thought  is  the  only 
court  of  authority.  What  I  cannot  understand,  I  will 
not  believe.  Only  that  which  my  mind  can  compass 
will  I  accept;  all  else  is  fiction,  dream,  imagination. 
This  modern  cry,  "Explain  all,  or  we  will  not  believe," 
may  sound  scientific,  but  it  is  related  to  true  science 
as  the  smoking  street  lantern  is  to  the  sun.  Explain 
all!  What  science  explains  all  in  the  department  with 
which  it  deals?  Does  Darwin  leave  no  mysteries  un- 
solved? Can  we  account  for  every  fact  in  our  daily 
experience,  the  truth  of  which  none  would  presume  to 
question?  Can  we  explain  the  wondrous  force  in  the 
plant  that  drives  leaves  and  blossoms  to  their  fruition? 
Can  even  the   most   profound  student  lay   his  finger  on 


810  THE    HOPE   O^   iMMORTAtltV. 

that  mysterious  something  we  call  life,  and  explain 
thought,  will,  feeling?  One-half  of  knowledge  is  based 
on  faith,  and  every  science  is  pillared  on  unsolvable 
mystery.  And  you — you  would  presume  to  deny,  to 
repudiate  the  belief  in  immortality — a  belief  that  has 
been  the  shrine  before  which  all  religions  bow  in  com- 
mon— a  belief  that  has  been  the  staff  and  support  of 
all  peoples,  ages  and  climes — because  your  reason  can- 
not grasp  it?  What  avails  the  flat  denial  of  unripe 
minds  over  against  the  firm  belief  of  profound  think- 
ers like  a  Mendelssohn,  a  Lessing  or  an  Emerson,  who 
clung  to  immortality?  The  very  first  requirement  in  a 
consideration  of  a  theme  so  perplexing,  so  mysterious 
as  this,  is  modesty,  humility,  the  recognition  of  the 
frailty  and  the  impotence  of  human  reason  over 
against  the  marvels  of  the  Infinite. 

It  is  reported  that  when  a  certain  well-known  atheist 
and  skeptic,  whose  best  powers  have  been  devoted  to 
demolishing  the  bulwarks  of  religion  and  to  scoffing 
at  God,  stood  before  the  open  grave  into  which  was  to 
be  deposited  all  that  was  mortal  of  a  brother  dearer 
to  him  than  all  else,  it  is  reported  that,  in  the  an- 
guish of  his  soul,  he  cried  aloud,  ''My  God,  this  is 
not  the  end."  Strange  irony  this  !  Bitter  inconsistency ! 
It  was  the  cry  of  his  heart,  mightier  than  the  frail 
voice  of  his  mind,  yearning  for  immortality.  It  was 
sentiment,  more  powerful  than  thought,  that  had  burst 
the  bars  of  reason,  and  insisted  on  a  life  larger  than 
this  little  span  of  years.  Who  is  there  who  has 
shrouded  in  darkness  and  silence  one  beloved,  who 
has  not  shrunk  back  in  horror  from  the  awful  thought 
of  annihilation,  and  every  chord  of  whose  heart  has 
not  thrilled  with  the  conviction:  No,  no,  a  thousand 
times  no,  life  is  not  to  end  in  "a  Stygian  cave  forlorn, 
where  brooding   darkness  spreads  its  sable  wings";  life 


THE   HOPE   OF   IMMORTALITY.  311 

is  more  than  pain  and  pleasure,  alternating  as  the 
rise  and  fall  of  the  waves  on  an  agitated  ocean;  life 
is  more  than  a  fleeting  shadow  ending  in  the  darkness 
of  the  tomb?  Who  is  there  who  has  stood  before  the 
grave,  looking  his  last  on  the  marble  face  of  a  dear 
one,  to  whom  hope  has  not  whispered  its  blessed 
message,  to  whom  love  has  not  spoken  in  accents 
sublime:  "Nay,  nay,  this  is  not  all,  the  soul  is  more 
than  dust,  it  is  a  breath  from  the  heights,  it  is  a 
spark  of  the  celestial  fire,  'in  Thy  salvation  do  I  trust, 
0   God.'" 

But  can  we  say  no  more  for  this  grand  belief  than 
that  afi^ection  sustains  it,  and  that  hope  yearns  for  it? 
Will  it  not  bear  being  looked  at  in  the  dryest  and 
sharpest  light  of  logic?  Truth  never  flinches  before 
reason.  There  are  arguments  that  are  fair,  logical  and 
just,  which  must  satisfy  the  mind  and  afl'ord  a  basis 
for   the   sentiment  that  disposes  the   heart  in  its  favor. 

The  first  of  these  is  drawn  from  the  world  of  mat- 
ter around  about  us.  One  of  the  laws  that  science  has 
most  positively  established  is,  that  in  the  material 
world  nothing  is  ever  destroyed.  There  is  no  such 
thing  as  annihilation.  Things  are  changed,  transforma- 
tions abound,  but  essence  does  not  cease  to  be,  even 
when  nature  has  manipulated  it  in  all  her  laboratories 
for  a  billion  years.  Take  a  quantity  of  matter,  divide 
and  subdivide  it  in  ten  thousand  ways  by  mechani- 
cal violence,  by  chemical  solvents,  still  does  it  exist 
as  the  same  quantity  of  matter,  with  unchanged  quali- 
ties as  to  its  essence,  and  will  exist  even  unto  the 
end  of  time.  Shall  matter  live  and  spirit  perish? 
Shall  the  lower  outlast  the  higher?  Shall  the  frame 
survive,  the  husk  continue,  and  the  soul,  thought,  af- 
fection, will,  be  crushed,  annihilated? 

But  look  further,    and    other   proofs   for    immortality 


Si 2  THE    HOPE   OF   IMMORTALITY. 

come  crowding  to  our  minds.  Here  on  earth,  every 
plant  and  flower  in  its  place  and  time  matures.  The 
acorn  ripens  every  year.  The  rose  reaches  in  every 
season  its  complete  maturity.  All  earthly  things  reach 
their  highest  development,  all  attain  that  for  which 
the  Creator  destined  them.  Man  alone  never  reaches  his 
complete  maturity.  Even  in  the  best  and  highest,  all 
their  qualities  are  not  fully  grown.  Man  is  never 
complete  in  the  qualities  of  a  man.  What  human 
soul   does  not  feel  the  full   force   of   the   poet's   words : 

"'Tis  life  whereof  our  nerves  are  scant, 
Oh  life,  not  death,   for   which  we   pant, 
More  life   and  fuller  than  we   want." 

Often  are  we  like  plants  that  live  in  an  inhospitable 
clime,  bearing  leaves  and  blossoms,  but  no  fruit.  We 
are  cut  off,  just  when  we  grow  strong  enough  to  do 
something.  We  are  driven  by  a  universal  truth-hun- 
ger, which  no  earthly  acquisition  can  satisfy.  We 
have  wings  that  are  eager  for  flight  to  the  very  sum- 
mit, eyes  that  long  for  fuller  vision ;  but  fell  circum- 
stances, adverse  conditions,  restrain  our  flight  and 
darkness  and  misery  blind  our  eyes.  Through  ages 
and  millenniums  myriads  and  myriads  have  lived  in 
hunger  of  mind,  and  heart  and  soul,  and  have  died 
questioning  and  unsatisfied.  Shall  we  believe  that  this 
fervent  yearning  that  thrills  our  very  soul  for  life,  for 
light,  for  truth,  is  all  a  hollow  mockery,  a  chimera 
that  lures  us  to  deception?  Shall  man  have  no  supe- 
riority over  the  brute  save  the  mocking  knowledge 
that  the  deepening  shadows  are  to  end  in  night,  and 
the  brilliant  hopes  to  culminate  in  annihilation?  Are 
we  to  regard  the  Creator's  work,  to  use  the  words  of 
John  Fiske,  "as  like  that  of  children  why  build 
houses  out  of  bricks,  merely  for  the  pleasure  of 
knocking  them  down?" 


tHE  HOPE  OF  IMMORTALITY.  3lS 

I  need  no  better  proof  that  I  am  more  than  cold 
clay,  than  the  voice  of  my  own  heart  that  whispers  to 
me  the  assurance,  not  in  vain  "Do  I  trust  in  Thy  sal- 
vation, 0  God."  I  believe  in  the  existence  of  a  God. 
I  believe  that  there  is  divine  justice  in  the  world.  Jus- 
tice cannot  be  without  immortality.  Every  star  whis- 
pers the  message  of  divine  love.  Every  flower  speaks 
of  infinite  goodness.  The  whole  creation  thrills  with 
the  one  refrain,  God  is  just.  Shall  that  love,  that  jus- 
tice, that  is,  the  universal  pa?an  of  praise  to  the  Creator, 
bursting  from  the  lips  of  all  His  handiwork,  be  denied 
to  man  alone?  As  surely  as  the  rising  walls  of  yonder 
building  suggest  the  finished  structure,  so  surely  do  the 
wrongs  and  the  sufferings  of  earth,  undeserved,  point  to 
another  life  where  what  is  incomplete  here  will  be  com- 
pleted, and  what  is  dark  here  will  be  illumined. 

Shall  we  believe  that  they  who  have  gone  out  of  life 
in  childhood,  in  manhood,  before  the  natural  measure 
of  their  days  was  full,  have  been  forever  hurled  into 
the  darkness  of  oblivion,  no  morning  to  follow  the  long 
night?  Shall  we  believe  that  the  great,  the  wise,  the 
generous,  gifted  with  the  noblest  talents,  aglow  with 
sublimest  aspirations,  who  have  been  summoned  hence 
long  l)efore  their  qualities  could  even  in  a  measure  be 
unfolded,  have  utterly  perished,  their  early  demise  being 
no  prophecy  of  yet  another  spring  and  summer  and 
harvests,  too  ?  Shall  we  believe  that  the  millions  made 
wretched  by  adverse  circumstances,  or  dying  the  death 
of  mart3^rs  for  truth,  or  living  in  want  and  anguish,  en- 
during the  pangs  of  persecution,  have  suffered  with  no 
divine  voice .  to  whisper  to  them  the  assurance,  "fear  not 
in  your  trial,  lose  not  courage;  battle  on,  there  is  a 
celestial  love  above  you?"  "What  a  piece  of  work  is 
man.  How  noble  in  reason.  How  infinite  in  faculties. 
In  form  and  movement,  how  express  and  admirable;     In 


314  THE   HOPE   OF  IMMORTALITY. 

action  how  like  an  angel.  In  apprehension  how  like  a 
God."  Has  the  Creator  fashioned  so  masterly  a  work 
as  man,  that  only  like  a  piece  of  worthless  clay  he 
might  be  demolished?  To  believe  this,  it  is  not  pro- 
fane to  say  it,  were  to  believe  that  God  is  a  cruel  ty- 
rant, and  not  a  God  of  Justice.  To  believe  this  were 
to  believe  that  virtue  is  a  deception,  and  truth  a  lie, 
and  self-sacrifice  a  mockery,  if  all  they  lead  to  is  dark- 
ness and  annihilation.  To  believe  this  were  to  affix  the 
seal  of  approval  to  the  words  of  a  Robespierre,  who  in 
his  dying  moment  is  reported  to  have  exclaimed,  "let 
the  candle  be  snuffed.  Let  life,  the  great  cheat,  be 
ended."  Without  immortality,  life  is  indeed  a  delusion, 
and  not  to  be  is  happiness.  Without  immortality,  the 
world  is  a  moral  chaos,  and  man  a  blind  machine. 
Without  immortality,  injustice  sways  the  scepter  and 
falsehood  sits  on  the  throne.  With  immortality,  the 
tomb  is  the  gateway  to  a  nobler  realm  and  death  the 
messenger  from  celestial  heights.  With  immortality, 
earth  is  the  pathway  to  a  brighter  sunshine  and  man 
the  child  of  Him  whose  days  are  without  end. 

I  confess  that,  in  the  discussion  of  this  theme,  I  have 
been  led  by  the  promptings  of  my  heart.  I  put  forth 
no  claims  to  any  rigorous  demonstration.  I  have  ut- 
tered an  aspiration,  nothing  more.  But  who  will  say 
that  an  aspiration  is  at  times  not  worth  as  much  as  an 
argument,  if  not  more  ?  Who  will  say  that  the  prompt- 
ings of  our  hearts  are  not  as  valuable  and  as  true  as 
the  voices  of  our  reason?  You  who  have  never  suffered, 
no  tear  has  furrowed  your  cheeks,  no  thorn  has  lacer- 
ated your  flesh,  to  you,  too,  will  come  the  night  of  cri- 
sis. Then,  and  then  surely,  you  will  realize  how  weak, 
how  impotent,  how  helpless  a  thing  is  human  reason. 
Then,  and  then  surely,  you  will  feel  the  full  force  of 
the  words,  "In  Thy  salvation  do  I  trust,  O  God." 


THE  HOPE  6^  IMMORTALITY.  315 

I  know  full  well  that  nothing  that  1  can  say  can 
make  real  and  tangible  for  you  this  belief  in  immor- 
tality. I  see  full  well  the  clouds  of  mystery  that  sur- 
round it.  But  I  appeal  to  your  sentiments,  to  your  de- 
sire for  happiness,  cling  to  this  child -like  trust.  The 
hope  of  the  poor,  the  hope  of  the  desolate,  the  hope  of 
refinement,  the  hope  of  everything  that  is  noblest  in 
civilization,  rests  on  the  belief  in  immortality. 

It  may  be  that  it  is  only  a  dream,  only  a  vision  of 
our  own  hearts,  but  even  so,  let  us  dream  on.  There 
is  happiness,  there  is  comfort,  there  is  inspiration  in 
that  dream.  Even  a  vision,  if  it  bring  hope  and  peace, 
is  better  than  reality  that  only  wounds  and  pains. 

"  Learners  are  we  all  at  school, 
Eager  youth  and  weary  age, 
Governed  by  the  self -same  rule, 
Poring  o'er  the  self -same  page. 
Life  the  lesson  that  we  learn, 
As  the  days  and  years  go  by. 
Wondrous  are  the  leaves  we  turn 
On  the  earth  and  in  the  sky. 
Oft  our  eyes  with  tears  are  dimmed, 
As  we  seek  in  vain  to  tell 
What  may  mean  some  harder  word 
Than  our  wisdom  yet  can  spell ; 
But  we  read  enough  to  trust 
That  our  grand  hopes  are  not  lies. 
That  our  hearts  are  more  than  dust, 
That  our  home  is  in  the  skies." 


THE   LAW. 


BY     RABBI      LOUIS     GROSSMANN,    D.D.,     DETROIT. 


I  am  often  asked :  Why  does  law  figure  so  much 
in  your  religion?  There  is  your  Biblical  law,  your 
Talmudic  law,  your  Rabbinical  law,  and  you,  reformers 
and  orthodox  both,  seem  to  agree  in  respecting  the 
principle  of  religious  law  (as  Jews  have  done  through- 
out the  history  of  Judaism),  and  you  differ  only  in  the 
question  how  much  of  it  is  expedient  and  of  what  kind 
it  should  be  under  modern  conditions.  I  confess  that 
I  am  embarrassed  by  the  question ;  as  I  feel  embar- 
rassed every  time  I  am  asked  a  sweeping  question  like 
that.  For  generalities  are  not  easily  made  plain,  and 
it  is  not  easy  to  bring  down  to  the  level  of  the  aver- 
age person  that  which  has  been  in  the  mind  of 
prophets  and  statesmen.  People  take  it  for  granted 
that  religion  is  a  simple  and  plain  matter,  or,  at 
least,  that  it  ought  to  be  simple  and  plain;  and,  to  be 
sure,  this  is  true  enough,  but  in  theology  simplicity 
and  plainness  are  rare  virtues,  and  it  is  quite  to  the 
point  to  say  that,  outside  of  philosophers  and  igno-| 
ramuses,  no  one  else  ever  got  much  out  of  abstractions./ 
We  take  an  interest  in  religion  not  because  we  have  a 
fancy  for  it,  but  because  we  feel  that  it  is  a  serious 
matter.     We   wish  to  be  told  about  it,  because  we  wish 

(316) 


THE   LAW.  317 

to  bring  it  home  to  ourselves.  Inquirers,  however, 
often  have  more  curiosity  than  earnestness,  and  while 
it  is  true  that  many  ask  in  good  faith,  it  is  the  experi- 
ence of  Jewish  rabbis  that  their  congregants  are  fre- 
quently after  scoring  a  point.  The  laity  of  all  denom- 
inations are  dominated  more  or  less  by  a  certain  spirit 
of  opposition,  by  what  I  might  call  an  anti-clerical 
mood,  which  endures,  though  the  reformatory  times  it 
came  out  of  are  almost  entirely  over.  So  a  good  deal 
of  skepticism  is  afloat  among  the  people  as  a  sort  of 
undefined  protest  against  something,  though  few  know 
now  what  that  intolerable  something  really  is.  I  do 
not  wish  to  say  that  the  question  what  point  there  is 
to  law  in  Judaism  is  one  of  this  kind,  for  it  is  too 
leading  a  question;  but  it  is  apparent  that  those  who 
put  this  question  lack  that  sympathy  which  he  who 
endeavors  to  respond  feels  that  he  has  a  fair  right  to 
expect.  Without  the  assurance  that  the  answer  will 
receive  a  due  measure  to  tolerate  hearing,  not  even  the 
soberest  inquiry   can   be  satisfied. 

You  will  remember  that  Simon  the  Just  used  to 
say:  "Upon  three  things  the  world  stands,  upon  law 
upon  worship  and  upon  charity.  ^I  prefer  to  give  it 
this  form:  Upon  Thorah,  upon  worship  and  upon  the 
mutual  recompense  of  kindness ;  but  we  will  not  go 
into  that  now.  It  will  be  sufficient  to  notice  tha^  he 
puts  law  first.  Of  course,  it  is  not  clear  on  the  surface 
of  his  maxim  what  he  meant  by  law  ;  still  I  think  it 
is  safe  to  suppose  that  he  meant  by  it  neither  regula- 
tions nor  statutes,  but  that  peculiarly  Jewish  sense  of 
law,  which  identifies  it  with  religion.  He  could  not 
have  meant  priestly  law,  for  he  saw  to  what  unworthy 
things  it  had  led  in  his  own  day,  and  being  quoted  at 
the  head  of  one  of  the  most  important  tractates  of  the 
Talmud,  in  a  comjjilatiQn  of  ethical  sayings,  it  is  lilvcly 


318  THE   LAW. 

that  he  was  known  not  to  have  referred  to  conven- 
tional ^nd  casuistica^ jurisprudence.  He  laid  down 
what  he  had  found  to  be  absolutely  necessary  if  the 
Jews  were  to  continue  in  the  world.  Simon  the  Just 
was  as  much  a  statesman  as  he  was  a  high-priest,  and 
we  have  a  hint  that  he  was  equally  wise  and  able  in 
that  pretty  legend  which  tells  us  how  he  went  forth  to 
meet  Alexander  the  Great  and  brought  the  conqueror 
to  worship  where  he  had  come  to  scoff.  In  this  day 
the  tide  of  a  new  culture  was  pouring  over  Jerusalem 
and  Israel,  and  what  he  says  has  not  only  the  force 
but   also  the   suggestiveness  of  a    statesman. 

I  wish  that  you  would  see  now,  in  the  light  of  the 
celebrated  saying  of  Simon  the  Just,  how  little  the 
world  understands  the  real  point  in  Judaism.  There  is 
a  good  deal  of  gossip  about  our  "legalism,"  or  at  least 
of  the  legalism  of  Moses  and  of  the  Talmud,  and 
church  people  do  not  tire  to  bring  out  the  awfulness 
of  it.  If  we  should  ask  in  all  candor,  what  is  the 
offense  in  this  charge  of  "legalism,"  we  should  not 
be  enlightened.  ^<fhere  are  words  which  float  about  in 
the  cheap  rumor  of  partisans,  and  they  seem  conven- 
iently to  carry  the  intended  stigma,  and  one  of  these 
incriminating  words,  in  the  conventional  language  of 
sectarianism,  is  "  legalism."  ^t  is  sufficient  to  fix  that 
name  upon  Mosaism,  if  what  you  are  after  is  to 
scandalize  it.  But  after  people  have  had  the  unchal- 
lenged pleasure  for  a  long  time  I  think  we  may  be 
allowed  to  ask :  What,  after  all,  is  this  sin  of  legal- 
ism?" Judaism  is  not  the  only  religion  that  has  been 
legalistic,  and  when  two  or  three  religions  do  the  same 
thing,  it  is  fair  to  try  to  understand  the  common 
trait.  As  far  as  I  can  see  every  denomination  has  had 
a  legalistic  period,  and  Catholicism  itself  is  that  to-day 
still!    There  may  be    a  difference  between  the    Jewish 


THE   LAW.  319 

phase  of  it;  it  is  entirely  home-grown,  and  the  others 
may  not  be  such  growths  out  of  their  own  roots  ;  but 
that  ought  to  tell  in  favor  of  Judaism.  Christian  law 
is  christian,  Roman,  pagan,  primitive  and  derivative; 
but  the  Jewish  dispensation  is  all  of  one  piece  and 
native.  And  I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  the  church 
was  rather  much  in  the  business  of  law-making  and 
that  it  has  not  even  the  merit  of  originality  in  the 
business.  It  was  only  a  century  or  so  after  the  close 
of  the  Talmud  that  Rome  went  into  the  "legalistic" 
enterprise ;  the  rabbis  were  simply  some  time  ahead  of 
the  church  fathers,  and  Christianity  seems  to  have 
profited  very  little  from  the  forbidding  example  of  rab- 
binical casuistry.  It  is  gratuitous,  it  seems  to  me,  for 
modern  Christians  to  denounce  without,  what  is  equally 
blameable  within. 

But  there  seems  to  be  an  impression  that  the  Juda- 
ism of  to-day  is  still  within  the  vise  of  this  "legalism," 
while  Christianity,  at  least  the  Protestant  portion  of  it, 
is  not,  and  the  assertion  is  made  that  Judaism  is  com- 
mitted to  it  for  all  time  to  come.  I  am  ready  to  con- 
cede neither  that  Protestantism  is  entirely  free  from 
every  ambition  to  rule  and  that  there  are  no  Protes- 
tant dilletants  who  try  their  hand  at  government  out 
of  all  sorts  of  religious  motives,  nor  am  I  willing  to 
acknowledge  that  modern  Judaism  is  legalistic  as  Mos- 
aism  is  or  as  Talmudism  is,  and  that  nineteen  centur- 
ies count  for  nothing  or  that,  if  Judaism  is  to  be  conj- 
mitted  to  an  unbendable  policy,  all  coming  centuries 
are  to  count  for  nothing.  If  people  would  know  what 
history  Judaism  has  had,  a  history  of  ideas,  not  a  his- 
tory of  mere  politics,  if  people  would  know  that  at  the 
same  time  when  the  Jews  stepped  out  into  the 
European  countries,  Rome  began  to  forge  chains  upon 
believers,  and  that  while  there  was   the  awful  interval 


320  THE   LAW. 

of  the  Middle  Ages,  Judaism  unfolded  into  a  bounti- 
ful life,  a  life  fertile  in  the  best  things  of  culture  as 
of  faith,  I  doubt  whether  they  would  be  so  positive 
either  to  prophesy  for  Judaism  an  unpromising  future 
or  to  summarily  dismiss  it  as  "legalistic"!  The  cen- 
turies between  the  council  of  Nice  and  Martin  Luther 
are  among  the  Jews  the  reverse  of  what  they  were 
among  Christians.  On  the  one  side  we  have  litera- 
ture, art,  science,  philosophy,  morality ;  on  the  other 
side  we  have  illiteracy,  superstition  and  the  lowest  ebb 
in  culture.  Judaism  had  undergone  a  great  renaissance 
long  before  the  Reformation  came  upon  Europe.  It 
would  be  a  misunderstanding  of  the  facts,  if  we  should 
say  that  modern  Judaism  is  radically  different  from 
ancient  Judaism,  but  the  one  is  different  from  the 
other  by  reason  of  an  eventful  interval.  Jews  have 
not  altered  much  in  matters  of  temperament;  stu- 
dents of  ethnology  may  be  puzzled  by  this  fact,  but 
it  is  nevertheless  a  fact.  Our  temperament  to-day  is 
pretty  much  the  same  those  Israelites  had  whose 
whims  and  passions  tried  even  a  Moses  and  whose 
virtues  and  peacefulness  enthused  a  Bileam,  so  that  he 
blessed  when  he  had  come  to  curse.  Though  our 
ancestry  up  to  the  very  threshold  of  our  day  have 
had  experiences,  which  went  to  the  roots  of  their  being, 
they  have  transmitted  an  unaltered  Semitic  mood  and 
mind  sa  that  we  are  as  typical  to-day  of  Israel  and 
we  arc  as  alternately  loved  and  hated  as  they  them- 
selves were.  We  have  withstood  every  kind  of  attack, 
the  open,  the  insidious,  the  attack  of  the  learned,  the 
clumsy  attack  of  the  mob,  attacks  theological,  attacks 
that  disenfranchised  us,  attacks  that  were  meant  to  de- 
moralize us,  preconcerted  and  guerilla  warfare,  every 
conceivable  kind.  We  are  the  marvel  of  history,  but 
g-lso   its   embarrassment.      We  came   out   of  the  orde:a\ 


THE   LAW.  321 

unscathed,  but  also  undejected,  spiritualty  unimpover- 
ished,  morally  unreduced.  We  have  our  good  humor, 
as  if  it  all  had  not  been ;  perhaps  you  can  detect  some 
pathos  in  it,  but   will   you  wonder  ? 

So  long  as  there  is  one  skeptic,  one  pessimist  in  the 
world,  we  are  safe  to  say  that  Christianity  has  failed ; 
despair,  suicide,  the  church  is  responsible  for.  Instead 
of  putting  the  stigma  upon  the  unfortunate,  it  would 
be  wiser  and  better  if  the  sect  could  see  that,  if  they 
had  been  efficient  in  what  they  do  for  the  community, 
the  nation,  the  world,  these  things  could  not  be.  The 
modern  world  is  as  yet  impotent  to  dispense  equal 
justice  or  equal  confidence;  and  the  modern  world  is 
largely  Christian.  The  best  proof  that  religion  is  of 
avail  is  obvious  when  it  can  preserve  the  good  na- 
ture and  the  moral  health  of  its  professors,  and  it  is 
unworthy  if  it  fails  to  achieve  that.  The  ghetto  was 
happy  and  pure  despite  the  persecutions.  That  narrow 
street  was  never  too  narrow  for  fan  and  never  too 
dark  for  morality.  The  Jew  of  the  Middle  Ages  loved 
life  as  much  as  the  Jew  of  Palestine.  The  Jew  does 
not  know  despair  and  suicide  is  practically  unknown. 
There  is  no  race  on  the  face  of  the  globe  with  as  sad 
a  history  that  has  been  as  uniformly  contented.  In 
this  the  distinction  between  Jew  and  Gentile  is  abso- 
lute. But  it  is  not  a  difference  that  comes  from  a  va- 
riance in  theology.  All  the  theologies  in  the  world, 
and  the  most  correct  form  of  them,  do  not  go  deep 
enough  into  human  nature.  It  is  not  theology  that 
makes  a  good  temperament.  The  world  is  learning  this 
at  great  cost. 

Now,  I  may  say  that  /Judaism  is  more  than  a  certain 
kind  of  theology.  We  may  have  had  to  speak  of  the 
unity  of  God  and  of  other  doctrines  as  peculiarly  Jew- 
ish,  but   we   did   it   merely   because    we    had   to   make 


32^  ^TttE  Law. 

clear  why  we  could  not  be  Christians,  not  because  thes6 
doctrines  made  up  all  there  is  to  our  religion  j/ nor 
have  we  ever  had  that  way  of  thinking  which/  will 
exact  of  each  man  a  personal  profession  of  belief.  We 
have  never  been  fond  of  the  formal  things  of  religion, 
or  at  least,  we  have  never  been  disposed  to  make 
much  out  of  them.  It  was  Christianity  which  brought 
the  question  of  personal  salvation  into  relief;  this  de- 
Judaized  it  and  made  it  unsocial  and  engendered  a 
kind  of  pious  selfishness. 

Seeing  that  the  theology  of  the  church  was  disinte- 
grating society,  the  state  rushed  to  the  rescue  and 
sought  to  recoup  by  law  what  religion  had  lost,  and 
ever  since  then  we  have  an  aversion  to  law,  and  we 
have  a  resentment  against  it  as  if  it  were  a  restriction 
in  what  we  feel  could  safely  be  left  with  us.  It  is  at 
the  door  of  the  church  we  must  lay  the  blame  of 
modern  unrest.  Law  is  not  a  burden,  it  is  a  liberation. 
This  is  the  JcAvish  view.  It  brings  you  and  me  to 
understand  one  the  other,  to  respect  one  the  other,  to  c 
help  one  the  other,  and  holds  us  in  mutual  regard 
despite  whims  and  passions.  Law  is  a  sacrament.  The 
fanatics  who  were  ingenious,  indeed,  to  devise  ways 
of  persecution  by  which  to  harrass  the  Jews,  did  not 
dream  that  the  very  cruelties  they  contrived,  touched 
not  even  the  threshold  of  the  "Jewish  heresy."  Nothing 
was  more  apt  to  perpetuate  Judaism  than  to  throw 
the  Jews  together  closely  and  compactly,  and  to  mul- 
tiply points  of  contact  between  them.  Association  in- 
tensified the  feeling  of  the  common  sorrow  and  chas- 
tened it  through  the  pathetic   communion. 

The  world  stands  through  law,  but  not  through 
statutes.  The  20th  century  may  get  to  understand 
the  point  of  this  old  word ;  the  19th  did  not.  If 
there  is   anything  which   Judaism   has   reiterated   more 


TttE  LAW.  323 

than  anything  else  it  is  that  truth.  But  the  religions 
of  Europe  have  made  of  it  either  philosophy  or  po- 
lice. The  Bible  is  more  than  philosophy  and  it  is 
more  than  police.  The  Talmud  is  less  than  a  philos- 
ophy, that  is,  it  is  no  catechism,  but  it  does  not  en- 
join precept  upon  precept  in  any  such  way  as  a 
modern  legislature  passes  a  bill,  and  then,  having 
found  that  the  enacted  statute  does  not  operate  well, 
passes  another  bill  to  nullify  it.  The  manifold  pre- 
scriptions of  the  Talmud  are  not  the  law,  but  "a 
fence  around  the  law,"  the  orderly  guardians  of  a 
conscience,  which  is  set  on  preserving  its  peace  and 
serenity — the   means   to   a   consummate   end. 

To  the  Jew  the  Bible  is  more  than  a  catechism. 
Nothing  is  more  curious  to  him  than  the  cheap  talk 
he  hears :  "Believe  this,  the  Bible  says  so.  Disbe- 
lieve this,  for  the  Bible  does  not  say  so,"  but 
similarly  nothing  is  farther  from  the  truth,  so  far  as 
Israel  understands  it,  than  the  opposite  extreme 
which  would  reduce  the  Bible  to  being  a  mere 
literary  classic.  There  is  something  in  the  Pentateuch 
which  will  always  be  forceful  and  more  than  mere 
literature.  /Judaism  is  greater  than  its  sacred  books. 
Judaism  has  been  translated  into  Christianity  and 
Mohammedanism,  not  because  these  in  the  west  and 
those  in  the  east  could  not  get  elsewhere  the  veri- 
fiable truths  of  religion,  but  because  the  Jewish  mould 
of  them  was  available  for  and  helpful  to  the  re- 
spective needs  of  the  tribes  of  Arabia  and  commun- 
ities of  Europe//  '''Thorah"  is  not  law,  complete,  fixed, 
stereotyped,  but  law  in  the  make,  as  it  were,  an  or- 
ganizing function,  a  social  factor,  an  agent  for  order. 
Abstractions  are   useless   for  the   business   of  lifeyc^.  4-"^* 

Let  me  illustrate  it.  You  stand  before  the  Alps, 
close  up   before  one  of  its  steep   mountains — you   will 


824  THE  LAW. 

never  take  in  the  grandeur  and  the  majesty  and  the 
pride  of  them.  You  have  no  perspective.  Over  3^our 
head  are  clouds,  you  see  nothing  more.  I  supply 
the  parallel.  You  face  the  profound  problems  of  life 
and  fate,  face  to  face  with  God.  Unless  you  are  a 
Moses,  you  cannot  encompass  them.  The  awe  of  it  will 
apall  you.  Theology  or  philosophy  either  unman  or 
transfigure.  Let  me  take  the  other  side  of  the  figure. 
Go  down  into  the  valley,  far  down  into  it,  till  you 
see  the  rising  mountains  and  the  sun  descending 
between  them.  You  see  glories  of  light  and  shade, 
and  you  bless  the  great  God  who  made  them.  So 
Judaism,  far  from  being  oracular,  beholds  the  life  I 
that  is  its  moving  scene  and  sees  God  in  the  heart/ 
of  it. 

If  people  would  only  understand  that  religion  is  ' 
not  arranged  for  us  but  by  us,  they  would  understand 
that  when  they  call  a  certain  religion  a  religion  of 
law,  they  imply  practically  that  that  religion  is  for- 
ever what  it  was  at  first.  But  an  adaptive  legislation 
is  a  free  legislation  and  a  progressive  legislation,  and 
that  it  is  so  is  proved  in  ample  ways  by  the  histor}^ 
of  Judaism,  which  is  practically  a  series  of  dis- 
placed legislations.  Leviticus  is  followed  b}^  Deuter- 
onomy, Deuteronomy  is  followed  by  Ezekiel,  Ezekiel 
by  Esra,  Esra  by  the  Mishna,  the  Mishna  is  followed 
by  the  Rabbanim  and  these  by  Reform.  And  these 
several  efforts  to  organize  a  people  came  from  its 
throbbing   pulses. 

In  fact,  we  are  rather  glad  to  see  that  the  sense  of 
adaptation  prevails,  for  while  we  feel  there  is  some- 
thing in  all  of  this  which  they  share,  we  know  that 
that  which  is  not  common  to  them  all,  is  incidental 
to   each,   not  essential. 

But   there    is   great  power  in  law.     It  is   the   church 


THE    LAW.  325 

which  has  made  the  distinctions  between  civil  and 
reUgions  law.  In  reality,  they  are  identical.  There  is 
a  point  of  view  by  which  all  laws  of  the  state  are 
really  religious  laws,  and  there  is  a  side  to  the  teach- 
ings of  the  religions  which  makes  them  obligatory. 
But  Jews  have  never  differentiated  the  two  aspects. 
You  may  say  this  was  the  theocratic  way ;  but  naming 
it  so  does  not  clear  up  the  matter.  We  have  too  long 
already  winced  under  the  stigma  of  that  name.'  It  is 
the  priesthood  and  its  arrogance  that  are  to  be  blamed 
for  it.  Nothing  can  be  said  against  the  feeling  and 
the  conviction  which  makes  public  obligation  equally 
religious  with  private  duties.  Politics  has  tried  hard 
to  rouse  every  man  to  do  his  share  of  the  common 
cause;  but  politics  is  always  national,  and  what  is 
national  is  always  partisan;  so  that  politics  from  the 
very  character  it  has,  is  utterly  powerless  to  do 
much  for  the  larger  love  and  larger  justice.  In  other 
words,  it  has  been  impotent  to  do  much  for  religion. 
Here  and  there  church  and  state  have  been  allies; 
but  this  implies  surely  that  the  church  had  reduced 
itself  to  the  limits  of  the  state  and  that  the  state 
never  aimed  at  more  than  a  truce  among  its  subjects 
and  a  truce  with  its  neighbors.  Christianity  has 
achieved  little  more  than  this  provincialism.  It  is 
only  when  the  spirit  of  culture  transcended  the  arti- 
ficial barriers  of  countries  and  the  tide  of  commerce 
broke  through  the  dams,  that,  upon  the  dawn  of  in- 
ternational politics,  there  came  also  the  denationaliza- 
tion of  the  church,  though  this  is  scarcely  yet  a  fait 
accompli.  The  separation  of  church  from  state  would 
have  been  impossible,  had  not  the  business  of  the 
world  demanded  a  new  jurisprudence.  The  several 
states  were  ready  enough  to  meet  the  new  condi- 
tions,   but    they    had    first    to    enancipate    themselves 


326  THE  LAW. 

from  the  thraldom  of  religion,  which  was  incapable 
to  meet  exigencies  in  any  adequate  degree  and  was 
unsuited  to  the  commercial  spirit  which  arose.  The 
church  has  no  special  function  of  its  own,  and  it 
never  had  any  capacity  for  the  business  and  its  state- 
craft has  always  been  pitiable.  Christianity  could  not 
serve  in  the  crisis  of  the  19th  century  and  there- 
fore, having  no  potency,  it  was  uncrowned.  The  num- 
erous sects  it  broke  up  into  are  witnesses  of  its  in- 
efficiency to   organize   mankind. 

This  reproach  can  never  be  given  to  Judaism.  It 
is  true  Judaism  had  to  deal  with  only  a  small  con- 
tingent, but  it  may  be  no  less  difficult  to  recruit  the 
few  into  an  orderly  group  and  to  give  these  perma- 
nence; the  problem  is  different  in  degree;  but  not  in 
kind.  The  spirit  of  Judaism  was  a  powerful  force 
in  saving  the  remnant  of  Israel.  Under  what  various 
circumstances  this  small  body  subsisted,  what  terrible 
vicissitudes  it  had  to  reckon  with,  what  crucial  tests 
of  its  morals  it  has  had  to  endure,  and  how  grandly 
it  has  passed  out  of  them!  Let  anyone  cite  a  parallel 
instance  of  the  vitality  of  a  race,  of  the  vivility  of  a 
race,  of  the  morality  of  a  race  under  similar  disasters, 
under  similar  hardships,  under  equal  temptations  when 
it  could  have  exchanged  everything  that  is  hard  and 
painful  at  the  cheap  price  of  a  pretended  conversion. 
When  was  the  price  of  hypocrisy  greater  than  when 
Christians  tempted  Jews  to  desert;  when  was  the 
premium  on  a  lie  greater  than  that  offered  by  the 
proselyting  church  to  poor,  oppressed,  degraded  and 
disgraced  Jews,  who  might  have  bought  immunity  and 
peace   so  easily,  if  they  had   wished? 

It  was  their  sense  of  right  which  gave  them 
strength.  The  church  could  not  make  that  spurious; 
the    state    could     not    wipe     it     out    of    their    hearts, 


THE   LAW.  327 

They  saw  it  desecrated  under  the  holy  name  of  reli- 
gion. They  spurned  the  church  for  doing  so,  and  all 
the  fascination  of  the  world  could  not  reconcile 
them  to  it.  The  state  trampled  all  their  privileges 
under  its  mighty  heel,  bat  it  has  no  resentment.  Not 
even  centuries  of  wrong  could  unman  Jews.  Contrast 
with  this  the  French  revolution,  the  provocation  for 
which  was,  taking  it  all  in  all,  no  greater  than  the 
accumulated  wrong  of  ages  which  the  Jews  had  suf- 
fered. See  how  virulent  the  uprising  then  ;  or  rather 
what  a  weak  hold  centuries  of  church  discipline  had 
upon  its  children.  If  the  revolution  is  a  protest  against 
political  wrong,  it  is  no  less  a  telling  witness  of  the  fail- 
•  ure  of  religion  as  conceived  by  the  western  world  that 
is  of  a  religion  of  opinion  and  of  personal  beatitude. 
The  history  of  the  Jews  is  a  pathetic  experiment 
before  the  eyes  of  the  world  of  the  saving  doctrine 
that  politics  is  not  statesmanship  and  churches  are  not 
religion.  For  that  handful  of  people  has  been  more 
successful  than  the  wealthiest  and  busiest  nations  of 
the  world ;  successful  I  say,  but  by  saying  that  I  run 
the  risk  of  being  misunderstood,  for  I  do  not  mean 
the  successful  in  the  market,  but  successful  in  that 
larger  sense  in  which  those  will  conceive  it  who  know 
that  a  nation  may  be  prosperous  and  still  be  wanting 
every  feature  which  in  the  march  of  culture  is  the 
final  and  only  honorable  achievement.  Jews  have  to- 
day as  keen  a  sense  of  right  as  they  ever  have  had ; 
their  original  doctrine  of  justice  is  still  respectable  and 
classical.  The  prophets  have  not  in  vain  become  the 
teachers  of  the  world.  The  Jews  have,  if  anything, 
intensified  their  virtues,  their  love  of  study,  their  fond- 
ness for  all  that  uplifts  the  mind  of  men ;  they  are 
morally  purer,  by  common  acknowledgment,  than 
many   a   nation  that  has  been  more  fortunately  placed. 


328  THE   LAW. 

They  are  intellectually  sound  and  vi.norous  and  reli- 
giously t?iey  are  still  a  model  of  fidelity.  We  are  as 
callous  to  the  wiles  of  missionaries,  as  we  were  when 
the  Dominican  friars  forced  their  sermons  on  us  in 
the  synagogue  of  Rome,  and  even  the  iron  hand  of  the 
czar  is  impotent  to  bring  the  Jews  to  the  baptismal 
font.  What  a  wonderful  organizing  power  must  that 
be  which  leads  a  whole  community  to  mourn  for  a 
proselyte  as  over  the  dead,  to-day  in  the  open  day  of 
the  19th  century,  and  what  must  that  ''legalistic"  reli- 
gion  be  which  attains  to  so   transfiguring ! 


LIFE. 

BY   RABBI   SAMUEL   GREENFIELD,    PITTSBURG,    PA. 


What  is  life?  asks  the  scientist.  Mark  his  answer. 
It  is  the  existence  of  a  protoplasm,  a  living  germ  which 
has  in  some  unaccountable  way  passed  over  from  inor- 
ganic to  organic  bodies.  Evolution  would  teach  the 
progressive  advance  of  objects  until  man  appears  upon 
the  stage,  man  endowed  with  both  reason  and  conscious- 
ness. In  other  words,  men  like  Huxley  would  give  us  a 
physical  basis  for  life.  Can  he  prove  how  the  non-living 
become  alive,  how  the  stone  passes  into  the  flower,  or 
the  worm,  or  the  bird,  or  the  least  of  all  man  ?  Life  is 
a  vital  principal  which  moves,  animates,  actuates  living 
things.  But  that  is  no  definition,  it  is  merely  a  term 
that  is  fuller  and  more  expanded.  Experiments  have 
been  made  in  the  laboratory,  by  chemical  means,  after 
every  possible  means  of  analysis  had  been  exhausted, 
in  order  to  produce  something  living,  moving.  By  the 
process  of  very  high  temperature,  spontaneous  genera- 
tion has  also  proven  a  signal  failure.  The  theory  re- 
ferred to  is  that  under  certain  given  circumstances,  and 
this  was  supposed  to  consist  mainly  of  a  high  degree 
of  heat,  life  can  be  generated.  If  this  could  be  done, 
evolution  would  receive  additional  support  in  its  evi- 
dence. Man  has  thus  far  not  been  able  to  produce  life 
where  there   was   none  before.     He  has  failed  in   every 

(329) 


330  LIFE. 

attempt  to  prove  that  living  beings  graduated  from  non- 
living, by  any  process  whatsoever.  The  scientific  theories 
of  life  do  not  and  cannot  conform  with  actual  facts. 
The  case  has  been  made  out  on  insufficient  evidence 
and  life  remains  as  much  of  a  mystery  and  with  as 
clouded  an  origin  as  ever  before.  This  offers  a  stum- 
bling block  to  evolution  which  it  cannot  overleap  by 
any  rapid  strides  or  careful  study,  inasmuch  as  its  ob- 
ject is  to  trace  back  existing  objects  as  far  as  possible, 
but  it  must  stop  at  the  point  which  would  be  of  great 
interest,  the  passage  between  the  cliffs,  with  a  chasm 
which  cannot  be  bridged  by  the  human  intellect,  how- 
ever great.  So  at  the  outset,  in  asking  what  life  is  from 
a  scientific  and  physical  standpoint,  we  are  compelled 
to  admit  the  insufficiency  of  any  theory  that  has  for  its 
object  the  establishment  upon  a  basis  of  matter,  this 
non-material  force.  We  must,  until  other  proof  is  given 
us  to  decide  the  question  positively,  believe  in  Biogene- 
sis, or  assuming  that  life  is  caused  by  previous  life, 
thus  tracing  man  to  his  original  creation. 

In  the  Talmud  is  recorded  the  fact  that  for  two  and 
one  half  years  was  a  discussion  carried  on  by  the  two 
opposing  schools  of  Shammai  and  Hillel,  the  one  main- 
taining that  it  was  better  for  man  that  he  had  never 
been  born,  the  other  that  it  was  better  that  he  was 
created.  Finally  it  was  decided  by  both,  that  it  would 
have  been  better  had  he  not  been  created  at  all;  but 
now  that  he  has  been  brought  into  the  world,  let  him 
engage  in  good  deeds  and  noble  work. 

A  disputation  such  as  this  did  not  arise  from  the 
mere  desire  to  indulge  in  argument.  Pessimists  of  to- 
day represent  the  thought  which  is  traceable  through- 
out the  history  of  man,  that  life  is  a  burden,  that  it 
presents  a  smiling  aspect  for  the  ignorant  only,  that 
it  is  full    of    the    deepening    darkness  of    pain,   replete 


LIFE.  331 

with  torture,  anguish  and  sorrow.  To  these  there  are 
no  flowers  on  earth,  no  goodness  in  nature,  no  redeem- 
ing feature  in  all  this  world  for  man.  Life  is  but  the 
entrance  into  a  room  where  fly  about  the  evils  set 
loose  by  the  mischief-making  Pandora.  From  the 
cradle  to  the  grave  do  dread  diseases  gnaw  at  the 
body,  rendering  it  weak  and  helpless  and  powerless. 
Hurricanes  enter  uj^on  the  scene  of  human  activity 
and  blight  the  growth  of  prosperity;  a  pestilence  inoc- 
ulates the  very  air  necessary  for  breathing  ;  storms 
ravage  human  habitation  on  land,  and  wreck  vessels 
at  sea;  earthquakes  and  natural  convulsions  storm  and 
rend  the  land  and  countless  human  beings  are  en- 
gulfed in  the  awful  yawning  gapes  of  earth  ;  a  severe 
north  wind  attacks  frail  man  and  he  shivers  and  be- 
comes cold  to  find  his  resting-place  finally  under  the 
cold  ground.  No  less  are  the  calamities  that  enter  his 
hearth  and  home.  Perhaps  at  the  very  opening  of  his 
life,  the  universal  apparition  of  death  intrudes  upon 
his  meditations  and  changes  joy  into  sorrow,  merry 
laughter  into  bitter  tears.  For  lo !  the  bright  star  of 
home,  she  who  nursed  and  watched  and  tended,  to- 
wards whom  his  afl'ections  clung  like  the  young  tendril 
to  the  mother  plant,  whose  heart  was  open  to  his 
own,  whose  thoughts  were  for  him  and  his  better- 
ment, who  kissed  away  every  childish  vexation  and 
youthful  disappointment  and  manly  discouragement, 
whose  love  centered  about  him  and  his  growth,  she 
whose  radiance  lit  up,  moonlike,  the  gloomy  earth  and 
firmament  of  his  experience,  with  the  motherly  coun- 
sel, the  advice  of  a  friend  and  well-wisher ;  or  may- 
hap, some  violent  calamity  has  seized  at  the  outset, 
the  sustaining  rock  of  family  life,  the  father  and  hus- 
band whose  one,  whose  only  solicitude  was  to  shield 
his  beloved  one^   from  hurt  ox.   harm,  to  protect  theu4 


332  LIFE. 

against  the  assailing  blasts  of  misfortune,  who,  like 
the  sun,  gracious  and  benign,  cast  the  glow  of  cheer- 
ful manhood  upon  those  he  protected  and  covered 
from  the  enslaving  toils  of  disasters.  Thus  doth  many 
a  weeping  heart  bewail  life  and  its  adversities,  pining 
for  death  as  a  release  from  a  chain  which  galls  and 
embitters.  Gloomy  are  the  forebodings  of  such  an  one. 
For  misery  has  branded  him  a  victim  of  fate  with 
its  many  minions  of  destruction.  From  the  cradle  to 
the  grave  is  his  path  beset  by  monsters  and  demons, 
in  forms  of  hideous  sprites  whom  he  at  last  despairs 
of  conquering  and  finally  asks,  "Wherefore  do  I  live, 
what  is  life  but  a  series  of  heart-rending  tortures?" 
"Is  then  life  worth  the  living?"  asks  the  anxious 
soul  and  troubled.  Deep  buried  in  the  bosom  lies 
the  question.  Tumult  of  thoughts  surge  in  upon  him 
with  the  momentous  interrogation.  The  answer  to  it 
is  the  decision  arrived  at  by  the  two  contending 
schools  in  the  Talmud.  To  the  young  is  there  not 
opened  up  a  vista  of  bright  prospects  ?  Does  it  not 
hold  forth  cheerful  views  of  the  content  of  life?  Is 
not  the  future  a  golden  goblet  from  which  might  be 
drunk  the  most  intoxicating  pleasures?  Duties  urgent 
and  pleasant  require  fulfilment.  Life  questions  form 
a  series  of  accomplishments  which  might  or  might 
.not  be  realized.  Here  stands  man  with  a  purpose, 
y{both  egotistic  and  altruistic.  He  is  confronted  with 
a  host  of  what-must-be-done.  A  multitude  of  oughts 
are  before  him.  An  unbroken  arra}'  of  must-bes  re- 
quest  a    conquest. 

He  stands  not  alone.  His  duties  involve  others. 
Every  man  lives  more  or  less  for  other  people.  No 
man  is  perfectly  selfish.  No  man  has  his  own  well- 
being  at  heart.  He  is  surrounded  by  companions, 
friends    and    relatives.     His    action    and    their    actions 


LIFE.  333 

form  his  world.  His  circle  is  bounded  more  or  less 
by  limitations  that  cannot  be  overcome.  His  exist- 
ence with  and  among  others  necessitates  work  on  his 
part.  These  assume  the  form  of  duties,  the  obliga- 
tions that  demand  imperative  recognition  and  im- 
mediate satisfaction.  According  to  the  greatness  of  the 
individuals  is  the  respective  work  of  each  marked  out 
for  him.  The  meanest  and  humblest  comes  in  con- 
tact with  other  people,  therefore,  he  has  his  function 
as  one  of  the  many.  His  duty  then  consists  of 
bringing  as  much  happiness  as  possible  into  the 
world.  Happiness,  the  sum  of  human  achievement, 
the  totality  of  his  efforts,  he  obtains  when  not  pur- 
suing entirely  selfish  aims.  What  makes  the  father 
happy?  His  performance  of  duties  involving  his 
family.  And  because  he  contributes  to  their  happi- 
ness, he  increases  his  own,  and  is  satisfied  that  he 
is  working  out  his  destiny.  What  causes  the  patriot 
to  die  happily  at  the  cannon's  mouth?  He  knows 
he  has  done  that  which  contributed  to  the  general 
welfare  and  at  the  same  time  his  duty  was  dis- 
charged when  the  last  breath  issued  from  his  body. 
In  that  word  is  comprised  the  whole  lifetime  of 
man.     In  duty  lies    the  fulfilment   of  his    hopes. 

In  thus  creating  a  center  for  the  magnetic  current 
of  happiness,  each  man  feels  that  he  is  living  a  life 
both  useful  and  bestowing  happiness.  It  is  in  the 
power  of  every  person  of  however  little  strength  or 
energy  to  cause  sunshine  to  emerge  from  every  dark 
and  cranny  nook.  A  social  creature  such  as  man  is 
cannot  be  conceived  as  living  unless  he  live  under  so- 
cial conditions.  All  men  form  a  unit,  not  one.  All 
men  compose  mankind,  not  one.  All  humanity  works 
for  an  end,  not  one  man,  except  as  individual  of  the 
community.     Behold  the    life  of  a    great    reformer,  of  a 


§§4  ttP«. 

noble  philanthropist,  does  he  work  for  himself?  t)oes 
the  poet  exercise  his  muse  and  imagination  for  him- 
self? If  so,  his  work  becomes  annihilated  by  time^^ 
Does  the  philosopher  reason  merely  for  himself? 
Does  the  prophet  announce  truths  and  denounce 
kings  for  his  own  amusement  ?  The  common  end  of 
all  is  to  elevate  mankind,  to  spread  happiness  every- 
where. Each  man's  life  is  worth  the  living  in  that 
he  does  that  for  which  he  is  eminently  fitted.  Hero, 
soldier,  martyr,  as  well  as  the  toiler  in  the  field  and 
the  machinist,  finds  life  where  work  is  given  him  to 
do,  to  enrich  the  race  in  its  treasures  of  spiritual 
possessions. 

Ask  then  him  whose  duty  is  being  executed  in  the 
interest  of  them  whom  he  loves,  with  whom  he  sympa- 
thizes, whose  fate  is  irrevocably  woven  into  his,  whose 
misfortune  is  his  bane,  and  he  will  tell  you  that  life 
is  worth  living  for  that  which  we  do  for  others,  and 
in  their  happiness  is  ours  also   involved. 

In  what  direction  lies  the  aim  of  life?  What  ob- 
ject shall  we  pursue  in  order  best  to  attain  that  for 
which  all  are  striving?  Is  it  wealth,  the  aftermath 
of  the  struggle  for  existence?  Our  best  experience 
shows  us  that  this  is  but  a  transitory  object,  a  mere 
chimera  which,  like  the  will-o'-the-wisp,  lures  on  the 
victim  to  final  ruin  and  destruction.  Admitting  the 
necessity  of  it,  its  usefulness  and  the  desirability  of  its 
possession  we  cannot,  nevertheless,  make  it  the  sole  and 
important  object  of  life,  however  much  the  tendency 
of  the  day  may  speak  in  its  behalf.  Is  it  pleasure, 
pure  and  simple?  Conceding  that  to  be  one  of  the 
mainsprings  of  conduct,  we  must  yet  deny  to  it  the 
prerogative  of  being  the  goal  of  man's  higher  desires. 
It  has  its  time  and  place,  but  the  very  fact  that  it 
caters   more  to   the   satisfaction   of  the   body,    excludes 


LiPte.  8S5 

it  from  the  choice  of  man's  aim  in  life.  For  we 
cannot  believe  that  the  satisfaction  of  bodily  desires 
is  all  that  we  should  live  for.  Granted  the  existence 
of  a  dual  nature  in  the  composition  of  man,  body 
and  soul,  or  matter  and  mind,  we  are  necessarily  com- 
pelled to  conclude  that  the  latter  is  the  more  lasting, 
less  evanescent,  more  permanent,  less  destructible. 

The  main  pursuit  of  the  mind  and  soul  is  truth.  It 
scans  the  heavens  for  it,  it  searches  the  earth  and  pen- 
etrates the  depths  of  sea  and  land.  Man  suffers  pain, 
endures  privation,  exhausts  physical  vitality,  courts 
poverty  and  invites  a  martyr's  fate  and  all  for  truth. 
He  seeks  knowledge  at  the  risk  of  non-indulgence  in 
pleasure,  rejects  wealth  in  the  interest  of  higher  gains, 
by  which  mankind  profits  immeasurably.  The  true 
alchemist  is  not  he  who  wishes  to  compound  gold  for 
its  own  sake,  but  because  of  the  truth  that  discovery 
unfolds  for  the  race.  Lives  are  thus  spent  in  toiling 
constantly  and  incessantly  for  the  good  and  welfare  of 
the  spiritual  nature.  Sorrow  and  pain  leave  the  in- 
delible traces  of  a  hunt  pursued  ever  since  the  first 
student  entered  the  universe,  but  yet  man  exhibits  his 
resolute  purpose  and  steady  aim  for  higher  things, 
thus  putting  to  shame  the  material  in  quest  of  gold 
or  pleasure  simply. 

The  true  object  of  life  is  then  the  perfection  of  the 
mind  and  soul  to  the  utmost  capacity,  the  cultivation 
of  a  character  true  and  sterling,  the  reaching  upward 
for  the  happiness  to  be  gained  in  this  wise.  With 
each  making  the  effort,  the  whole  race'  is  benefited,  for 
a  higher  individual  raises  the  standard  of  the  lower 
aggregate.  In  the  study  of  man,  there  have  been 
found  laws  as  inviolable  as  those  which  govern  the 
physical  world.  Where  else  was  demonstrated  that 
there   exist  the   abstract  good   and  bad?     How  account 


336  LIFE. 

for  the  supremacy  of  love,  for  the  immutable  convic- 
tion of  freedom  ?  Where  else  find  the  yearnings  for  \ 
n.  comprehension  of  a  first  cause  and  of  an  Infinite  \ 
existence?  The  physical  becomes  removed  from  the 
l)sy('hical  in  man  by  just  that  distance  which  spans 
the  points  of  the  finite  and  infinite,  of  the  change- 
al)lo  and  unchangeable,  of  the  temporary  and  the  eter- 
nal. Progress  without  end,  advance  without  pause, 
effort  without  remission,  marks  the  propelling  power  in 
man,  that  power  never  ceasing  in  action,  but  contin- 
ually  impelling  to   fresh   endeavor. 

To  us  is  it  given  to  fashion  and  frame  our  lives, 
and  mxark  this  is  most  important  to  those  who  admit 
man's  freedom  to  do  and  act.  We  can  so  shape  our 
lives  by  good  and  noble  deeds  that  we  need  have  no 
cause  to  regret  having  been  created,  or  we  can  so 
mar  the  beauteous  harmony  by  improper  and  unworthy 
conduct  as  to  cry  out  in  despair,  as  of  old  did  Job, 
"wherefore  was  I  born."  But  like  Job,  who  became 
a  poet  and  philosopher  when  adversity  overtook  him, 
and  loss  of  property  weighed  him  down,  and  loss  of 
family  depressed  him,  we  must  also  say :  "  Shall  we 
receive   only  the  good   from   his   hands  ? " 

Calamity  and  diversity  are  the  salt  which  purifies 
and  cleans,  for  it  is  not  until  we  are  so  afflicted  that 
we  comprehend  the  mutability  of  earthly  conditions, 
and  with  wings  shorn  of  earthly  thoughts,  rise  to  a 
better  comprehension  and  conception  of  life's  ordainer 
and  of  life's  mission  which  depends  neither  upon  local 
nor  transitory  power. 

Within  the  variegated  cameo  lies  the  compass  of  hu- 
man life,  the  hue  of  green  tokening  the  child,  that  of 
red,  rosy  youth  and  the  heavenly  blue,  the  old  man. 
Though  changed  the  years  and  diff*erent  the  colors,  be- 
hold   the     same     individuality     passing     through     all. 


LIFE.  337 

Each  a  beautiful  type  of  divine  handiwork,  each  with 
peculiarities.  Innocent  childhood,  gay  youth  and  serene 
old  age!  From  the  breast  of  all  issue  love,  wisdom, 
gladness,  and  finally  death  closes  the  kindling  eye,  stops 
the  beating  heart  and  the  living  witnesses  of  a  life  well 
spent,  surrounding  the  couch  of  the  beloved  kindl}^ 
aged  one,  testify  to  the  affection  of  kin  and  family. 
Yet  say  the  old  rabbis,  "  no  man  dieth  with  half  his 
wishes  fulfilled."  Restless  yearning  to  toil,  a  spirit  of 
unrest  for  labor,  to  achieve,  to  surmount,  to  accomplish, 
leaves  ambition  but  barely  satisfied.  So  doth  man 
come  and  go,  the  child  prophesying  the  youth,  the  bud 
of  manhood  remains  but  a  few  years,  ere  the  calm  and 
peaceful  age  seizes  upon  him  and  his  struggle  and 
worry  and  torment  end  with  the  final  hope  for  a 
future,  with  the  acknowledgment  of  a  God  supreme. 
With  a  breath  he  expires  and  his  soul  is  launched 
upon  the  sea  for  a  voyage  into  realms  unknown,  into 
regions  unexplored.  Thus  ends  a  life  of  trial,  of  vicis- 
situde, encouraged  and  spurred  on  to  everlasting  efforts. 


THE  WEAKNESSES  OF  BIBLE  HEROES. 


BY    RABBI    EDWARD    N.    CALISCH,   RICHMOND,  VA. 


"There  is  no  man  who  may  not  sin." — I    Kings   viii,  46. 
"For  though  the  righteous  fall  seven  times,  he  will   rise  up 
again." — Proverbs  xxiv,  16. 

Certain  theologies  base  upon  the  event  of  man's 
first  disobedience  the  doctrine  of  total  depravity.  It 
is  maintained  that  man  is  inherently  corrupt  and 
vile,  that  he  is  conceived  in  sin  and  born  in  iniquity, 
that  his  existence  is  evil  and  his  life  is  wickedness, 
and  that  he  is  savable  only  by  vicarious  atonement 
and  the  sacrifice  of  a  pure  and  perfect  savior. 

It  is  hardly  my  intention  to  criticise  or  point  out 
defects  in  others.  I  have  mentioned  this  doctrine 
of  total  depravity,  only  that  I  might  emphasize,  by 
contrast,  the  difiering  and  nobler  conception  of  our 
teaching.  To  teach  the  total  depravity  of  the  hu- 
man being  is  to  stultify  the  sacred  writings,  which 
declare  that  "man  is  made  in  the  image  of  God." 
(Genesis  i,  27.)  This  creation  in  the  image  of  God 
means  in  the  God-like  capacities  with  which  the  soul 
of  man  is  endowed,  the  powers  of  will,  reason,  con- 
science, the  impulse  to  strive  for  that  degree  of  perfec- 
tion which  is  by  man  attainable,  the  power  to  achieve 
a   high   and  glorious  destiny. 


TttE  WEAKKESSE9  Of  Slfetl?  HEROES.  S39 

The  rabbis  of  old  said  that  Adam,  when  he  was 
created,  was  so  large  that,  as  he  stood  with  his  feet 
upon  the  earth  his  head  towered  into  heaven.  This 
quaint  rabbinical  conceit  means  only  that  man,  though 
bound  to  earth  by  the  limitations  of  his  mortal  frame, 
has  yet  the  power  to  reach  heavenly  heights  in  moral 
aspiration   and  spirtual   flight. 

It  is  precisely  this  doctrine  which  I  desire  to  teach 
to-day.  Man  stands  with  his  feet  on  earth,  but  with 
his  head  in  heaven.  The  claims  of  his  earthly  frame 
are  constantly  tending  to  pull  him  down,  and  does  he 
often  yield,  yet  though  he  should  stoop  so  low  as  to 
lie  prone  on  the  earth,  even  then  can  he,  and  he  him- 
self, without  external  or  adventitious  aid,  raise  himself 
upright  again. 

The  wise  Solomon  knew  full  well  this  truth,  and  in 
the  two  verses  that  have  been  taken  for  our  text  he 
states  it  plainly.  When  in  that  magnificent  prayer  of 
dedication,  with  which  he  opened  the  portals  of  the  glo- 
rious house  of  God,  he  prayed  for  the  pardon  of  the 
people  when  they  should  sin,  he  recognized  how  persis- 
tent and  powerful  was  the  earthly  weakness  of  the  hu- 
man race,  and  he  says  "for  there  is  no  man  who  may 
not  sin."  (I  Kings  viii,  46.)  But  he  knew  as  well  that 
the  recuperative  power  lay,  too,  within  the  man  himself, 
and  he  tells  us  that  "though  the  righteous  may  fall 
seven  times,  yet  will  he  rise  again."  (Proverbs  xxiv, 
16.) 

This  truth  is  likewise  evidenced  in  the  lives  of  al- 
most all  the  famous  figures  and  heroes  in  the  Scrip- 
tures. 

The  heroes  of  the  Bible  were  heroes  in  moral  con- 
flict. Yet  we  find  that  they  all  had  their  weaknesses. 
Noah,  though  called  a  just  and  righteous  man,  and  one 
who  walked  with  God  (Genesis  ii,  9),  was  guilty  of  sod- 


340  'THfi  WEAKnR&SE^  OB*  felfetE   ttEftOfig. 

den-witted  drunkenness.  Abraham,  the  patriarch  and 
founder  of  our  faith,  the  man  of  perfect  obedience,  of 
generous  and  unquestioning  hospitality,  of  justice, 
mercy  and  philanthropy,  was  twice  guilty  of  cowardice 
and  the  accomplice  of  a  heinous  crime.  The  deceptions 
and  the  strategies  of  Jacob  cannot  be  glossed  over. 
Moses,  Aaron,  and  Miriam,  all  three  suffered  the  wrath 
of  God  because  of  their  disobedience.  The  weakness  of 
the  mighty  Samson  made  him  the  plaything  of  Delilah. 
Saul  felt,  even  in  his  lifetime,  the  results  of  his  errors. 
David  is,  perhaps,  the  best  illustration  of  the  truth 
which  we  teach.  He  was  a  man  who  sunk  to  the  low- 
est depths  and  rose  to  the  highest  heights.  The  whole 
gamut  of  human  weakness  and  human  strength  was 
run  by  him.  He  played  on  every  key  in  the  great 
organ  of  the  human  heart,  from  the  lowest  bass  of  pas- 
sion to  the  highest  and  shrillest  note  of  spiritual  frenzy. 
He  fell,  fell  often  and  deeply,  but  each  time  he  rose 
again.  Though  Solomon  walked  in  all  the  ways  of 
wisdom  and  laid  down  many  a  noble  precept  of  life, 
yet  was  not  himself  free  from  sin. 

To  those  who  oppose,  these  sins  and  weaknesses  of 
the  Bible  heroes  have  been  made  the  object  of  much 
scorn,  ridicule  and  contumelious  attack.  They  will  pick 
out  the  flaws  and  weaknesses  of  each  one,  and,  dwell- 
ing upon  it  and  it  alone,  cry  out,  "Are  these  the  men 
you  hold  up  as  models?  A  Noah,  guilty  of  drunken- 
ness, an  Abraham,  of  cowardly  desertion,  a  Jacob,  of 
falsehood,  a  David,  of  murder,  a  Solomon,  of  a  hundred 
vices  ?  " 

But  to  the  one  who  reads  rightly,  these  weaknesses 
of  the  Bible  heroes  are  their  strength.  The  Bible, 
above  all  things,  is  for  human  guidance,  human  help 
and  assistance.  Its  lessons  are  the  lessons  of  human 
life,   and    its   heroes,   therefore,  are   human.     The   pres- 


THE   WEAKNESSES   OF   BIBLE   HEROES.  341 

ence  of  the  faults  and  the  follies  of  its  great  men  is 
doubly  creditable  to  the  writers  of  the  Scriptures.  It 
shows  the  absolute  fidelity  and  accuracy  with  which 
they  chronicled  events.  Naught  was  set  down  in  mal- 
ice, naught  glossed  over,  naught  extenuated.  When  a 
sin  was  committed  it  was  not  hidden  or  condoned. 
Often  its  punishment  was  given  by  its  side.  Noah  is 
rebuked  by  the  conduct  of  his  sons.  Jacob  feels  the 
humiliation  of  his  acts,  when  twenty  years  later  he 
meets  Esau  again.  Miriam  was  struck  with  leprosy; 
the  great  law-giver  and  leader  was  not  permitted  to 
cross  the  Jordan.  The  intrepid  Nathan  stood  before 
the  monarch,  who  had  sinned,  and  flung  the  reproach 
into   his   face. 

By  these  very  things  does  the  Bible  press  home  to 
us  the  lesson  of  our  human  and  our  God-like  being. 
These  men  were  heroes  and  leaders.  They  sinned, 
yes,  and  by  the  very  reason  that  they  rose  superior 
to  their  sins  are  they  strong,  do  they  appeal  to  us, 
are  they  kin  to  us.  They  stumbled  and  fell,  therein 
were  they  men,  not  gods.  They  rose  again,  therein 
were  they  heroes.  The  true  strength  lies  not  in  never 
having  fallen,  but  in  rising  after  one  has  given  way. 
"Though  a  righteous  man  fall  seven  times,  yet  will  he 
rise  again."  Had  the  heroes  of  the  Bible  been  flaw- 
less, stainless,  immaculate,  perfect,  they  would  not  ap- 
peal to  us  as  they  do.  That  they  were  weak,  we  know 
them  to  be  our  brothers,  fighting  the  same  battles  of 
lust,  passion,  temptation  and  allurement,— that  they 
conquered  their  weaknesses  and  rose  to  the  sublime 
heights  of  moral  truth,  aye,  to  the  very  summit  and 
acme  of  spiritual  life  and  conception,  teaches  us  that 
we  too  have  these  God-like  possibilities  within  us,  we 
too  can  and  will  climb  the  Moriah  of  obedience,  the 
Sin9.i  of  steadfast  loyalty,  the  Nebo  pf  sublime  resigna^ 


342  THE   WEAKNESSES   OF   BIBLE   HEROES. 

tion,  and  by  our  moral  strength  defeat  and  destroy 
the  weaknesses   of  our  mortal  garment. 

For  this  reason,  too,  let  us  be  wary  in  stern  judg- 
ment. The  human  being  is  compassed  by  too  many 
limitations  to  be  perfect.  Perfection  is  only  of  God. 
Indefectibility  can  only  be  of  that  omniscient  One 
whose  power  permeates  the  worlds,  whose  mercy  is  ^as 
fathomless  as  His  wisdom.  Striving  to  be,  if  to  an 
infinitesimal  degree,  like  Him,  in  purity  of  thought 
and  deed,  let  us,  like  Him,  also  remember  the  weak- 
ness of  man,  and  be  generous  in  thought,  kindly  in 
speech,  slow  in  condemnation,  but  swift  to  approve 
where  approval  may  be  had.  As  the  best  tempered 
metal  is  flexible,  so  the  true  story  of  human  endeavor 
is  not  that  of  rigid  and  inflexible  indefectibility,  but 
in  the  recuperative  power  of  the  soul,  that  saves  and 
raises  us,   though   we   have  fallen  seven  times. 

This,  personally  ;  communally  let  us  take  home  the 
same  lesson  of  modesty  of  bearing  and  absence  of  as- 
sumption, for  we  have  need  of  it.  We  have  fallen  into 
the  habit  of  considering  ourselves,  the  Jews,  as  almost 
morally  unassailable.  We  deem  our  history  the  most 
glorious,  our  mission  the  most  sublime,  our  faith  su- 
preme among  the  annals  of  men.  Of  ourselves  we  have 
a  hardly  less  exalted  opinion.  And  when  some  time- 
server,  some  seeker  after  our  suffrages,  or  our  patronage, 
or  our  influence,  or  charities,  comes  to  us,  and  often 
by  our  own  invitation,  and  pours  the  honey  of  fulsome 
flattery  before  us,  tells  us  "the  Israelites  are  among  the 
best  and  most  highly  respected  of  our  citizens;  you 
never  meet  a  Jewish  beggar,  and  you  never  see  a  Jew- 
ish drunkard,  or  convict,  or  burglar,"  then  we  gulp  that 
honey  down,  and  pat  ourselves  on  our  vain  and  foolish 
backs,  and  tell  ourselves  we  are  not  only  the  chosen 
people,  but  we  are  the  perfect  people,  we  are  the  leaven 


THE   WEAKNESSES   OF   BIBLE   HEROES.  848 

and  salt  of  every  community,  flawless,  stainless  and  sin- 
less. 

There  can  be  no  greater  weakness  than  that  which 
denies  all  weakness.  With  the  first  part,  the  abstract, 
I  will  agree,  our  history,  our  mission,  and  our  faith  are 
sublime  and  supreme.  But  Judaism  and  the  Jews, 
while  they  should  be  in  perfect  unanimity,  are  often 
widely  diverse.  The  faith  is  better  than  its  followers.  > 
It  is  folly  for  us  to  consider  ourselves  flawless.  We 
know  our  weaknesses.  We  cannot  hide  them  by,  os- 
trich-like, hiding  our  heads  in  the  sand-heaps  of  self- 
interested  flattery.  "There  is  no  man  who  may  not 
sin,''  and  no  people,  for  a  people  is  but  a  number  of 
men.  We  know  our  faults  and  our  sins  as  a  people, 
our  cruel  coldness  to  our  faith,  our  heartless  indiffer- 
ence to  its  needs,  our  deafness  to  its  calls,  our  shame- 
facedness  in  acknowledgment  of  it,  our  avoidance  of 
its  duties  and  obligations,  our  selfish,  cruelly  selfish, 
disregard  of  all  that  crosses  our  convenience  or  our 
pleasures. 

There  is  greater  crime  in  knowing  and  continuing 
these  faults  than  in  the  faults  themselves.  You  have 
fallen.  Raise  yourselves  up.  The  heroes  of  the  Bible 
have  shown  the  pathway.  Be  ye  heroes,  not  in  never 
having  fallen,  but  fallen,  in  raising  yourselves  up,  for 
the  righteous  man  is  not  he  who  has  never  fallen,  but 
he  who  has  risen  up,  though  fallen  seven  times.     Amen. 


MANHOOD. 


SERMON    BY    REV.    DR.    E.    SCHREIBER,   TOLEDO,    O. 


Text:    n^D  ^''Mim  "^^^<i  ^^^  man  Moses." 

Poets,  thinkers,  philosophers  and  orators  since  time 
immemorial  have  been  singing  the  praises  of  Man. 
"  What  a  piece  of  work  is  man !  How  noble  in  reason, 
how  infinite  in  faculty  !  In  action  how  like  an  angel, 
in  apprehension  how  like  a  God ! "  These  words  of 
Shakespeare  re-echo  the  Biblical  passage  "  Let  us  form 
man   in  our  image." 

When  Mark  Antony  sums  up  his  eulogy  on  Caesar  in 
the  words  "This  was  a  man,"  he  only  imitates  the 
Bible  which  knows  no  greater  title  of  distinction  than 
that  of  "  man."  "  And  the  man  Moses,"  "  Elijah  the 
man  of  God,"  "  Mordecai  the  man,  the  Jew,"  are 
some  instances. 

The  history  of  man,  not  of  the  Hebrew  occupies  the 
first  chapter  of  the  Bible.  Man,  independent  of  race, 
nationality,  creed  or  previous  condition,  is  the  mes- 
sage of  Judaism.  The  Midrash  embellishes  the  story 
of  man's  creation  by  adding  that  the  dust  of  which 
Adam  was  formed,  was  taken  from  various  parts  of 
the  globe,  thus  conveying  the  lesson  of  the  equal 
origin  of  all  men.  The  prophet  Micah,  in  summing  up 
the  essence   of  Ethical  Monotheism  or  of  the  Religion  of 


MANHOOD.  345 

the  Prophets^  lays  stress  on  the  passage :  "He  (God) 
hath  told  thee,  oh  Man!  what  he  requireth  of  thee. 
Nothing  but  to  do  justice,  to  love  kindness  and  to 
walk   humbly."     (Micah  vi,   8.) 

But  who  is  a  man  ?  Not  he  who  because  God  made 
him  passes  for  a  man.  Saadiah  says  this  passage  "  in 
our  image "  means  that  man  is  the  king  of  creation. 
He  shall  rule,  govern;  "Thou,  oh  God,  hast  placed 
everything  beneath  his  feet,"  sings  the  Psalmist  (Ps. 
viii,8). 

Indeed  man  includes  all  life  before  him.  His 
achievements  are  wonderful.  He  levels  mountains  and 
raises  valleys.  With  lightning's  speed  he  almost  an- 
nihilates time  and  space.  By  bonds  of  iron  and  steel, 
by  the  interests  of  commerce  and  industry  he  renders 
the  wide  world  one.  By  his  intellect  and  moral  energy 
he  traces  the  path  of  nature,  makes  seemingly  hostile 
forces  and  elements  his  allies,  binds  them  to  his 
chariot  and  behold!  like  swift  steeds,  they  carry  him 
whithersoever  it  pleases  him  and  on,  on,  they  draw 
his  car  of  progress.  Like  God  Himself  man  "makes 
the  winds  his  messengers,  the  burning  flames  his 
servants";  he  is,  as  our  sages  put  it,  "God's  partner 
in  the   work   of  creation." 

But  does  material  success  constitute  all  the  ele- 
ments of  manhood  and  God-likeness?  No.  Man- 
hood means  the  reverse  of  selfishness.  Man  must 
not  only  conquer  nature  but  subdue  his  passions. 
Selfishness  is  the  privilege  of  the  lower  animals  and 
of  the  savage  who  comes  nearest  to  them.  Mail's  duty 
is  to  work,  like  God,  for  others ;  to  be  his  brother's 
keeper. 

Moses  is  called  "the  man"  because  he  was  in  the 
highest  degree  unselfish.  Although  reared  in  luxury, 
bred  under  the  enervating  influences  of   an    Egyptian 


346  MANHOOD. 

court — although  honored,  distinguished,  great,  he  ''went 
out  to  see  his  brethren,  the  slaves.''^  This  meant 
more  in  Egypt  with  her  system  of  castes,  so  well 
symbolized  by  the  pyramid,  than  it  would  mean 
among  us.  He  entered  their  workshops  to  see  for 
himself  how  they  were  treated.  He  saw  a  grave  in- 
justice done  to  an  Israelite.  "He  looked  around" 
and  suggestively  the  Midrash  adds  "in  order  to  see 
whether  among  the  thousands  of  fellow  laborers  one 
man  could  be  found  who  would  not  quietly  look  on 
while  another  was  struck,  perhaps  killed."  But  there 
was    not   one  tt^"'«    ]"«. 

Did  Moses  selfishly  calculate  the  possible  evil  con- 
sequences for  himself  which  might  result  from  this 
interference?  No;  emulating  God  who  "cannot  bear 
the  sight  of  wrong"  he  made  the  cause  of  weak 
suffering  innocence  his  own,  and  killed  tbe  Egyptian. 
"He  was  a  man"  who  dared  to  protest  against  tyranny, 
to  defend  the  oppressed  and  to  maintain  the  princi- 
ples of  justice  even  in  Egypt  where  "calves  were 
kissed  and  men  were  slaughtered";  even  in  Egypt, 
the  "house  of  slaves." 

This  unselfishness  forced  Moses  to  leave  his  splen- 
dor, his  power,  his  home  and,  as  a  poor  fugitive,  to 
eke  out  a  frugal  existence.  ,  Again  his  unselfishness 
prompted  him  to  take  up  the  cause  of  the  wronged 
shepherdesses  in  Midian  against  their  persecutors  and 
to  choose  a  calling  which  in  Egypt  was  despised  and 
spurned,  namely,   that  of  a   shepherd. 

When  Israel,  utterly  disregarding  the  mission  en- 
trusted to  them,  danced  around  the  golden  calf,  God 
said  to  Moses :  "I  shall  destroy  Israel,  but  make  of 
thee  a  great  nation."  A  selfish  man  seeing  such  an 
exhibition  of  base  ingratitude  on  the  part  of  those 
who  thus  defeated  the  work    of   his  life,  might  have 


MANHOOD.  347 

permitt(3d  things  to  take  their  course  or  even  rejoiced 
at  such  a  turn.  But  not  so  the  unselfish  "man  Moses." 
Outraged  though  he  was  at  the  horrible  sin  of  his 
people,  the  man  who  could  wield  an  iron  hand  when 
circumstances  demanded  it,  prostrated  himself  and 
sought  forgiveness  for  the  backsliders,  saying:  "Oh, 
if  thou  wilt  not  forgive  their  sin,  then  blot  me  out 
of  the   book  that  thou  hast  written."    (Ex.   xxxii,   32.) 

When  Eldad  and  Medad  prophesied  in  the  camp 
and  Joshua  said,  "My  master  Moses  forbid  them  to 
do  so, "  did  he  selfishly  interfere  with  those  "  out- 
siders "  ?  On  the  contrary,  "  Art  thou  zealous  for  my 
sake"?  And  "Oh,  that  one  might  render  all  the 
people  of  God  prophets  that  he  would  put  His  spirit 
upon  them.  "  (Num.  xi,  30.)  Such  was  the  answer  of 
the  "  man  Moses, "  who  was  the  very  incarnation  of 
unselfishness. 

When  the  spies,  by  false  reports,  endeavored  to  dis- 
courage the  Israelites  from  fighting  for  the  promised 
land,  and  Jahveh  wanted  to  destroy  Israel  and  make 
of  Moses  a  great  and  powerful  nation,  he  again  prayed, 
"Forgive  the  sin  of  this  people  in  accord  with  thy 
great  love,  as  thou,  oh  God,  hast  always  done  " 
(Num.   xiv,  19);   and  thus  he  saved  the   nation. 

When  Korah  and  his  followers  attempted  to  create 
a  rebellion  against  Moses,  charging  him  with  hierarch- 
ical proclivities,  Moses,  the  true  man,  could  face  the 
excited  masses  and  exclaim  "Who  can  say  that  I  ever 
took  an  ass  from  him  or  that  I  ever  injured  a  fellow- 
man?"     (Num.   xvi,  15.) 

Indeed,  Moses  did  not  even  ask  for  a  sepulchre. 
Moses  never  gave  an  office  to  one  of  his  sons.  When 
this  "man  Moses"  was  commanded  to  ascend  the 
mount  of  Abarim,  to  see  from  afar  the  "promised 
land "    which    he    would   not    be    permitted    to   enter, 


348  MANHOOD. 

what  was  his  foremost  thought?  Not  self,  not  morti- 
fication at  his  own  sad  bitter  fate,  but  the  welfare  of 
the  nation.  He  said :  "Let  the  eternal,  the  God  of 
the  spirits  of  all  flesh,  set  a  man  over  the  congrega- 
tion so  that  the  congregation  of  God  may  not  be  as 
sheep   without  a  shepherd."     (Num.  xxvii,   12  to  20.) 

Here  is  the  same  loftiness  of  spirit  rising  above 
every  thought  of  self  which  marks  the  whole  career  of 
this  "man  Moses."  Wade  through  folios  of  biography 
and  history  and  you  will  seek  in  vain  such  a  high 
degree  of  manhood  and  unselfishness.  The  annals  of 
history  preserve  names  of  great  statesmen  who  proved 
unselfish,  so  far  as  material  gain  was  concerned,  but 
they  were  not  free  fi-om  egotism  and  jealousy,  when 
their  power,  glory  and  influence  were  to  be  taken  from 
them.  Bismarck,  whose  greatness  cannot  be  denied, 
proved  petty,  and  adhered  to  the  despicable  "rule  or 
ruin"    policy  under   similar   circumstances. 

Once  only  this  "man  Moses"  appears  to  have  been 
influenced  by  a  spirit  of  selfishness.  He  wanted  to 
see  the  "promised  land,"  the  fruit  of  the  hard  work, 
the  earnest  labor  of  a  life-time.  Our  sages,  however, 
give  a  touching  psychological  explanation  of  this 
natural,  this  truly  human  desire  of  the  great  man. 
"Did  Moses,"  they  ask,  "care  to  eat  of  the  luscious 
fruits  which  grew  in  Palestine"?  No;  he  said  to  God: 
"  So  long  have  I  labored  and  suffered  for  Israel,  so  long 
have  I  seen  their  sorrows  and  sins,  their  trials  and 
tribulations,  that  now,  when  the  dream  of  my  ambition 
is  about  to  be  realized,  I  am  anxious  to  see  the  fulfil- 
ment of  my  hopes,  my  people's  happiness." 

This  "  man  Moses  "  was  only  a  man,  no  god,  no  angel. 
His  faults  are  not  concealed  in  the  Biblical  records. 
He  was,  like  all  great  men,  very  impulsive.  Every 
noble   deed    is   th§    result  of  impulse,   of  pressure,  of 


MANkoOb.  §49 

excitement.  Enthusiasm  and  fanaticism  grow  on  the 
same  tree,  are  children  of  passion.  Cool,  cunning, 
calculating  men  of  policy,  tricky,  crafty,  intriguing  dip- 
lomats may  be  successful  schemers,  but  they  are  small 
people.  They  fail  to  inspire,  to  lift  up,  to  elevate, 
and  to  carry  multitudes.  Our  sages  justly  say:  "If 
there  were  no  passion,  who  would  build  a  house,  take 
a  wife,  or  plant  a  vineyard?" 

He  who  deserves  the  title  of  man,  must  be  impul- 
sive. He  must  be  indignant  at  the  sight  of  sin,  must 
be  outraged  at  the  sight  of  wrong  triumphant,  must 
be  impatient  at  the  sight  of  justice  down-trodden, 
truth  dethroned,  and  crime,  superstition  and  hypocrisy 
enthroned  in  high  places.  It  might  not  have  been 
dignified  in  Moses  to  strike  the  Egyptian,  but  do 
not  his  impulsiveness  and  righteous  indignation  find 
full  justification  in  the  words  of  Isaiah : — "And  justice 
was  forced  to  the  background,  and  righteousness  stood 
far  off.  And  he  saw  there  was  no  man  and  wondered 
that  there  was  no  intercessor,  therefore  his  own  arm 
brought  him  aid?     (Isa.  lix,  14-16.) 

It  was  impulsiveness,  and,  perhaps,  lack  of  dignity 
which  prompted  Moses  to  say  to  God,  "Since  I  came 
to  speak  in  Thy  name  to  Pharaoh,  the  people  suffer 
more,^^  or  to  address  the  nation  of  Israel  as  follows : 
"Oh  hear,  ye  rebels  P^  But  "the  greater  the  man,  the 
greater  his  temper  and  passion,"  so  teaches  the  Tal- 
mud. It  was  most  certainly  impulsive  and  undignified 
in  Moses  to  break  the  tablets  of  the  law  into  a  thou- 
sand pieces.  Yet,  according  to  the  old  sages,  God  said 
to  Moses,  after  having  seen  Israel's  wild  dance  around 
the  golden  idol,  "Thou  hast  done  well  in  breaking 
the  tablets." 

This  conveys  the  important  lesson  that  the  true 
honest  teachers  of  religion  must  possess  the    courage  to 


350  MANHOOt). 

break,  to  destroy  the  idols  of  the  masses,  whenever 
the  exigencies  of  the  times  demand  it.  The  message 
of  God  entrusted  to  Jeremiah,  "I  have  sent  thee  to 
destroy  and  to  build  anew,"  is  the  principle  of  every 
reform  movement,  which  is  "destructive  in  its  first 
stages,   in   order  to   be  constructive  in  the  end." 

And  this  brings  us  to  another  test  of  manhood, 
namely — Decision.  Impulsiveness  and  decision  go  hand 
in  hand.  Moses  was  a  man,  therefore  decision,  re- 
gardless of  consequences,  was  one  of  the  leading  feat- 
ures of  his  character.  Neither  Moses  nor  the  prophets 
were  men  of  compromise.  When  Hezekiah  saw  that 
the  people  worshiped  the  brazen  serpent  he  destroyed 
it,  although  Moses  had  made  it.  Elijah  exclaimed, 
•'How  long  will  ye  halt  between  two  opinions?"  If 
Jehovah  is  God,  follow  him;  and  if  Baal,  then  follow 
him."     (I  Kings  xviii,  21.) 

Modesty  and  humility  is  finally  another  criterion  of 
true  manhood  and  in  this  also,  the  "man  Moses  "may 
be   our  ideal. 

I  do  not  mean  that  false  humility  of  the  Pecksniff, 
Tartu ffe  and  Uriah  Heep  style,  which  hides  its  haughti- 
ness and  arrogance  toward  man,  under  the  cloak  of  hu- 
mility before  God.  But  the  "  man  Moses "  is  a  type 
of  the  noble  pride  of  humility.  He  recognizes  the 
merits  of  the  Aarons,  Joshuas,  Calebs  and  even  of  the 
Eldads  and  Medads  who  '' prophesied  in  the  camp." 
He  leaves  his  work  unfinished,  he  does  not  want  to  be 
regarded  as  the  atlas  who  carries  the  whole  world  upon 
his  shoulders,  who  completes  the  great  work,  without 
the  co-operation  of  others.  He  was  indeed  1^12  VjJ^ 
"  very  humble."  When  the  message  came  to  him  "  Go 
and  redeem  my  people,"  he  who  was  not  afraid  to  fight 
for  justice  single-handed  in  the  land  of  the  Pharaohs 
and  in  the  face  of  violent,  rough,   Ethiopian  shepherds. 


MANHOOi).  35l 

hesitated  to  accept  the  noble  appointment.  "  Who  am 
I,  that  I  should  go  to  Pharaoh  "  ?  "I  am  not  elo- 
quent." "Send  some  one  else."  This  is  the  language 
of  true  humility  and   true   manhood. 

Such  was  the  "  man  Moses."  Humbly  as  he  lived 
he  died  ;  "  and  no  man  knoweth  the  place  of  his 
grave."  "  His  grave  should  not  be  regarded  as  a  place 
of  pilgrimage,  whither  men  go  to  do  honor  to  one,  and 
thus  raise  him  above  the  level  of  man."  So  say  our 
ancient  teachers,   and  so  say  we. 

Let  us  be  proud  that  we  can  point  to  such  a  "  man 
Moses."  and  doubly  proud  that  he  w^as  only  "a  man," 
who,  with  his  faults,  foibles  and  errors,  stands  so  much 
nearer  to  us. 

Oh,  let  us  emulate  the  unselfishness,  decision  and  hu- 
mility of  the  "man  Moses."  To-day,  more  than  ever  be- 
fore, do  we  need  new  ivhole  men,  inspired  men,  enthusi- 
astic men.  Men  do  we  need  in  the  congregations,  men 
do  we  need  in  the  pulpits,  men  who  do  not  measure  by 
the  yardstick  the  success  of  the  congregation.  Unselfish 
men  do  we  need  in  the  pulpit,  who  never  ask  whether 
truth,  half-truth  or  falsehood  will  best  advance  their  in- 
terests; who  do  not  cringe  before  the  powerful,  who  do 
not  cater  to  every  fad  of  the  day  and  do  not  change 
their  views  with  every  turn  of  the  tide.  Men  of  deci- 
sion do  we  need  who,  like  the  old  prophets,  possess  the 
boldness  and  courage  to  teach  a  living,  broad,  all-em- 
bracing Judaism,  based  on  the  principles  of  service, 
sacrifice,  righteousness,  freedom,  justice  and  truth.  Men 
do  we  need  who  do  not  sell  their  convictions  for  a  mess 
of  pottage,  who  would  rather  be  right  than  popular, 
who  lead  and  are  not  led  and  w^ho  dare  to  ignore  the 
applause  or  the  ridicule  of  ignorant  or  unprincipled 
critics.  Men  do  we  need  who  amid  the  ravages  of 
ambition,    the   mean    aims   of   egotism    and   under   the 


S52  Manhood. 

burden  of  great  trials  and  tribulations  spurn  tbe  fairest 
gifts  of  fortune  in  the  pursuit  of  duty  and  the  vindi- 
cation of  the  cause  of  humanity.  Men  do  we  need 
who  in  this  age  of  materialism  dare  to  believe  that 
purity  of  motive  is  not  a  dream  of  fancy,  but  that  it 
is  placed  within  our  reach  and  is  the  very  end  of  our 
being.  Such  men  and  such  men  only  will  make  our 
pulpit  an  attractive  source  of  centralization  and  a 
power  of  spiritual  elevation.  They  will  contribute 
towards  the  spread  of  Jewish  ideas  and  hasten  the 
Messianic  time  when  "righteousness  will  flow  like  water 
and  justice  like  a  mighty  stream."     Amen. 


THE  DELUGE. 


BY  REV.  DR.  F.  I)E  SOLA  MENDES. 


One  of  the  most  striking  features  of  the  Mosaic 
records  we  have  commenced  to  read  anew,  is  the 
episode  of  the  Deluge.  And  I  call  it  thus  striking, 
not  so  much  because  it  is  a  plain,  unvarnished,  un- 
pretentious delineation  of  a  remarkable  event  w^hich 
other  sources  and  other  authorities  tell  about,  though 
in  far  more  fanciful  and  pretentious  guise,  but  be- 
cause of  the  fundamental  religious  doctrine  that  in  it 
and  by  it  is  inculcated,  that  moral  decay  and  moral 
corruption  are  follow^ed  by  punishment  or  disaster  of 
a  physical  order.  We  shall  not  stop  to-day  to  ex- 
amine the  historical  corroboration  of  the  Deluge  re- 
ceived from  those  sources,  no  longer  than  to  suggest 
that,  old  as  the  history  is,  and  familiar  as  we  all 
may  claim  to  be  with  it,  closer  study  very  often  will 
be  rewarded  by  new  light  and  new  facts.  Thus,  for 
instance :  I  suppose  nine  out  of  every  ten  of  us  who 
know  all  about  the  Deluge,  or  think  we  do,  imagine 
it  as  having  been  simply  of  the  nature  of  a  protracted 
rain,  and  picture  to  ourselves  the  desolate  and  per- 
sistent down-pour  from  the  hurrying  clouds ;  and  so 
scarcely  notice  that  remarkable  expression :  "all  the 
fountains  of  the  great  deep  were  split  open  "   ("  broken 

(353) 


354  THE   DELUGE. 

up, "  the  English  version  lamely  says),  which  fills 
in  the  picture  with  the  far  more  serious  suggestion  of 
an  inundation  from  the  sea,  a  bursting  forth  of  the 
ocean,  a  tidal  wave,  or  possibly  even  the  settling  down 
of  the  land  and  its  sinking,  while  from  countless 
springs  the  water  rushed  up  and  flooded  everything. 
The  subsidence  of  whole  continents,  we  know,  has 
often  happened  in  the  geological  history  of  the  globe, 
and  this  is  the  account  of  what  happened  among  men 
during  one  of  them.  Both  in  its  physical  aspects  and 
in  its  historical  ones,  as  illustrated  by  the  clay 
tablets  found  in  Assyria  and  deciphered  in  recent 
days,  this  whole  subject  of  the  Deluge  furnishes  a 
highly  interesting  topic  but  one  from  which  the 
lecture-platform  would  be  the  best  place  and  some 
other   opportunity   the   best   time. 

Dwelling  then  to-day  only  on  the  topic  of  physical 
suffering  and  ph3'sical  extinction  following  upon  moral 
disregard  and  violence,  the  question  will  undoubt- 
edly arise  in  the  mind  of  every  thoughtful  Bible 
reader,  "Was  all  this  necessary?"  Was  such  a  world- 
catastrophe,  which  more  modern  research  is  beginning 
to  show  us  was  of  far  larger  extent  than  we  have 
been  accustomed  to  consider  it,  requisite  to  wipe  out 
the  wrong-doing  of  a  wicked  generation  of  men  ?  True, 
Scripture  tells  us,  hishliit  kol  basar  darko  "  all  flesh 
had  corrupted  its  way  upon  the  earth,  "  but  why  had 
they  been  permitted  to  do  so?  Why  had  corruption 
been  allowed  to  reach  such  a  pitch  of  vileness  that 
a  terrible  cataclysm  of  nature  had  to  be  brought 
about,  earth  convulsed,  and  ocean-floods  invoked  to 
wipe  it  clean?  And  they  who  ask  thus  are  not  mere 
curious  students  of  the  past,  mere  archaeological  in- 
quirers delving  amid  the  rubbish  and  the  ruins  of  by- 
gone ages.     The  inquiry   has    pertinence   to-day ;  it  ap- 


THE   DELUGE.  355 

plies  to  our  own  times  ;  it  echoes  among  us  as  well 
as  among  the  sinful  generation  of  Noah.  Why  is  cor- 
ruption allowed  to-day?  why  are  sin  and  suffering 
still  permitted  to  defile  and  deface  the  surface  of 
earth  ?  There  can  be  no  greater  trial  or  torture  for 
right-thinking  men  and  women  than  to  see,  as  they 
too  often  are  called  upon  to  see,  the  suffering,  the 
sorrows  and  privation  of  those  who  they  conceive  are 
meritorious   enough    to    escape  such   hardship. 

A  bright  and  gifted  child,  a  girl  of  sixteen,  known  to 
many  among  you,  possibly  a  former  pupil  of  our  Sun- 
day-school, died  a  few  weeks  ago,  after  a  period  of 
protracted  and  severe  pain.  Why  was  all  that?  To 
say  that  the  poor  child  inherited  her  ailment,  that  she 
contracted  it  from  one  cause  or  another,  does  not 
answer  the  question:  why  was  such  suffering,  why  was 
such  death,  permitted  by  the  Almighty  Providence, 
which  most  certainly  rules  us  ?  And  when  I  formu- 
late the  question  thus  for  any  one  particular  case  or  set 
of  cases,  you  understand  of  course  that  it  stands  not 
for  one,  but  for  a  dozen  sets  of  cases  or  more,  more 
or  less  similar,  which  everyone  of  us  meets  with  in 
his  or  her  journey  through  life.  Why  are  these  things 
allowed  ? 

The  problem  here  presented  will  be  best  solved 
perhaps  by  seeking  the  analogy  of  appropriate  illustra- 
tions. One  of  the  oldest  sciences,  chemistry — its  very 
name  comes  to  us  from  the  early  Arabs — gets  revo- 
lutionized about  every  thirty  years :  that  is  to  say, 
the  chemistry  of  one  generation,  by  continued  research 
and  discovery,  comes  to  be  quite  different  from  that 
of  the  generation  preceding.  It  is  not  many  months 
ago  since  the  discovery  was  made  in  England  that 
the  air  we  breathe  contains  in  large  quantities  a  gas 
entirely  unknown   or  unrecognized  a  year  aga,  but  yet 


356  THE    DELUGE. 

which  we  liave  been  breathing  all  our  lives ;  and 
not  only  wc,  but,  so  far  as  we  know,  all  the  count- 
less generations  of  man  hitherto  on  earth.  See,  too, 
the  vast  strides  made  in  discovery,  in  other  sciences, 
in  arts  of  various  kinds ;  in  mechanical  appliances, 
in  time-saving  and  labor-saving  devices,  all  educed 
and  built  up  by  the  patient,  persistent  life-work  of 
countless  investigators,  very  many  of  whom  have 
sacrificed  their  comfort,  some  their  lives,  to  the  re- 
searches they  had  in  hand,  for  the  benefit  of  man- 
kind's progress.  Now  would  it  not  have  been  impos- 
sible for  Almighty  Benevolence  to  have  at  once  re- 
vealed all  this  vast  fund  of  knowledge  in  former 
ages,  and  so  have  given  all  our  predecessors  the  bene- 
fit of  all  the  comforts  and  aids  we  now  enjoy,  and 
at  the  same  time  have  spared  those  patient  discoverers 
and  inventors  the  bitter  years  of  their  toil,  and  the 
numerous  disappointments  ?  Yes,  you  will  say :  it 
would  have  been  possible,  of  course ;  you  are  not 
sure  whether  it  would  have  been  wise.  Men  of  earlier 
ages  were  not  ready  for  discoveries  and  comforts  re- 
sulting ;  they  would  not  have  appreciated  them  or 
utilized  them.  Besides,  and  this  is  the  chief  point,  all 
the  healthful  exercises  of  the  thinking  faculties,  of  in- 
genuity and  suggestion,  of  experiment  in  a  word, 
would  have  been  lost  to  the  world  if  mankind  had 
been  born  knowing  all  about  chemistry,  all  about  me- 
chanics, all  about  electricity.  Without  the  constant 
spur  of  intellectual  exercise  and  practice,  men  would 
have  been  learned  babies,  knowing  everything  already, 
and  with  their  brains  and  their  energies  growing  soft, 
and   slack,   and  pithy,  and  useless. 

Now  let  us  go  a  step  further.  There  is  a  science — 
almost  entirely  a  modern  one — which  deals  with  the 
circumstances  of  men  in  their  organized  communities, 


THE   DELUGtB.  357 

sociology.  It  treats  of  such  things  as  labor  and  capital, 
poverty  and  wealth,  crime  and  its  prevention  or  re- 
pression and  so  forth.  Its  problems  are  some  of  the 
most  perplexing,  most  heart-rending  of  any,  for  human 
hearts  and  human  lives  are  its  materials  of  experi- 
ment, human  sufferings,  the  things  which  it  must  study. 
Mistakes  are  made,  terrible  mistakes,  blunders  which 
have  heart-rending  results  with  such  materials ;  could 
not  God  have  given  us  a  revelation  on  sociology  which 
would  have  taught  us  once  and  forever  how  we  are  to 
handle  wealth  and  labor,  how  poverty  can  be  remedied 
or  prevented,  and  crime  checked  and  stifled?  He 
could,  of  course;  but  if  He  had,  if  we  knew  exactly 
how  to  handle  these  things,  in  the  first  place,  such  a 
life  of  complete  happiness  and  universal  comfort  as 
would  ensue,  would  enervate  and  relax  our  energy, 
would  dull  every  ambition,  and  in  reality  give  us  the 
life  of  the  brute  or  the  vegetable;  we  should  only 
have  to  feed  and  grow  large.  And  in  the  second  place, 
if  all  such  problems  were  already  solved  for  us,  one 
of  the  sources  of  our  keenest  delight,  of  our  most  last- 
ing and  purest  satisfaction,  would  be  taken  awa}^ 
from  us ;  the  delight  of  being  useful  to  our  kind,  of 
ministering  to  their  wants  in  some  degree,  assuaging 
pain  and  bringing  comfort.  We  should  be  much  the 
poorer  off,  did  we  possess  consummate  knowledge  of 
true  principles  of  sociology,  but  at  the  same  time 
have  no  practice,  whatever,  in  sympathy,  in  helpful- 
ness, in  brotherhood.  Those  who  practice  these  things 
are   the  noblest  of  our  kind. 

In  these  and  other  departments,  then,  of  practical 
knowledge  God  has  given  us  no  relevation :  He  has 
left  us  to  find  out  the  laws  and  results  of  various 
circumstances.  We  very  soon  ascertain  that  there  is  a 
fixed   uniformity    about   things,  that  fire   always   burns, 


358  THE   BELmE. 

even  an  innocent  child;  that  alcohol  always  maddens, 
no  matter  how  learned  the  imbiber;  that  unthriftiness 
always  impoverishes,  no  matter  how  much  capital  you 
start  with.  The  collection  of  these  multiple  facts  con- 
stitutes education,  and  they  are  as  accessible  to  all  of 
us  as  much  as  to  any  favored  few.  Until  we  learn 
that  fire  burns  everyone,  that  intoxicants  brutalize 
everyone,  that  extravagance,  want  of  management,  im- 
poverish everyone,  we  are  simply  ignorant,  and  it  is 
our  ignorance  which  subjects  us  every  time  to  the 
sharp,  severe  lesson  so  surely  awaiting  our  transgress- 
ing offenses.  When,  therefore,  your  sympathizing  heart 
is  bruised  by  the  aspect  of  suffering  or  affliction,  be- 
fore accusing  the  kindness  of  Providence,  be  sure  that 
none  of  the  laws  of  nature  have  been  sinned  against. 
It  would  not  be  wise  to  ask  God  to  change  these 
laws  when  the  innocent  child  grasps  the  hot  coal  or 
the  professor  yields  to  the  temptation  of  intoxicants; 
they  must  learn,  we  all  must  learn,  the  wisely  ar- 
ranged laws  of  our  nature,  and  we  must  help  all  to 
learn   them. 

You  will  observe  that  I  do  not  include  death 
among  the  experiences  which  properly  excite  our  pity. 
I  have  always  considered  it  both  folly  and  imperti- 
nence to  do  so ;  folly :  because  we  know  nothing  of 
what  becomes  of  us  after  passing  that  portal ;  imper- 
tinence :  for  the  unwarrantable  assumption  that  this 
life  is  the  best  possible  life  awaiting  us,  and  therefore 
departure  from  it  a  calamity.  To  the  contrary,  I 
think  life  is  a  blessing  if  properly  spent,  no  matter 
whether  short  or  long.  The  next  step,  I  sincerely  be- 
lieve, is  a  promotion,  an  advance,  not  a  step  to  be 
deplored;  all  nature  is  built  that  way,  always  higher, 
upward,  never  downward,   backward,  to   inferior    states. 

In   conclusion,   then,  we  may  say  that,    just    as  God 


'THE   DElUGE.  359 

has  left  chemistry,  mechanics,  electricity,  sociology,  for 
us  to  find  out  about,  in  the  very  best  and  most  ad^ 
vantageous  manner,  by  experience,  or  education,  so  in 
the  field  of  practical  morality,  We  must  ascertain,  fot 
ourselves,  or  by  the  experience  of  others,  contempo- 
raries or  predecessors,  that  sinfulness  brings  suffering, 
that  wilful  corruption  has  its  undetachable  penalty, 
that  anarchy  and  violence  bring  ruin  and  deluge.  We 
were  not  made — Providence  be  thanked — mere  auto- 
mata; we  can  do  wrongfully  if  we  wish  to,  freedom 
of  choice  is  inseparable  from  nobility  and  progress; 
but  we  must  recognize  the  unchangeable  laws  which 
God  has  wisely  set,  governing  the  results  as  we  are 
upright  or  the  reverse,  as  we  choose  the  good  or 
choose  the  evil. 


THE  JEWISH   HOUSE   A   SANCTUARY 
OF  THE  LORD. 


BY    REV.    DR.    B.    FELSENTIIAL. 


''I  shall  dwell  amongst  them"  (Exod.  xxv,  8). 
These  brief  words  of  our  Torah  shall  be  the  text  of 
my  to-day's  sermon,  and  the  subject  shall  be :  "The 
Jewish  house  must  be,  or  ought  to  be,  a  sanctuary, 
dedicated  to  divine  service,  and  in  which  the  spirit  of 
God   shall   dwell." 

The  very  announcement  of  this  theme  may  call  foi-th 
some  of  my  hearers'  contradiction,  or  at  least  some 
doubting  and  shaking  of  the  head.  What !  Our  houses 
shall  be  sanctuaries?  Shall  the}^  be  temj^les,  or  syna- 
gogues, in  which  every-day  prayer  meetings  are  to  be 
held  ?  No !  Our  houses  and  dwelling  places  are  erected 
for  other  purposes.  We  must  have  a  parlor  where  we 
receive  our  visitors  and  friends;  a  dining-room,  where 
we  take  our  meals;  a  kitchen,  where  the  meals  are 
prepared;  the  necessary  sleeping-rooms  for  the  members 
of  our  family,  and  for  our  servants,  and  so  forth.  If 
any  one  feels  the  desire  to  enter  a  sanctuary,  a  house 
for  divine  worship,  let  him  go  to  the  temple,  erected 
and  dedicated  for  such  purposes.  Thus  some  may 
argue. 

(360) 


A   SANCTUARY   OF  THE   LORD.  361 

These  arguments,  however,  rest  upon  totally  false 
premises,  and  they  therefore  lead  to  false  conclusions. 
They  presuppose,  first,  the  thought  that  religious  ideas 
and  sentiments  should  be  fostered  only  and  exclu- 
sively, and  should  be  promulgated  and  advocated  only 
and  exclusively,  in  special  buildings  dedicated  to  di- 
vine worship — that  is,  in  churches  and  synagogues. 
They  presuppose,  furthermore,  the  idea  that  religions- 
should  have  a  right  of  speech  only  at  special  days 
and  seasons  set  aside  for  such  a  purpose— that  is,  on 
Sabbaths  and  on  festivals,  and  at  such  other  times 
which  may  be  agreed  upon  by  a  community.  And, 
thirdly,  they  presume  that  this  right  of  speech  should 
be  exercised  only  and  exclusively  under  certain  forms 
and  formalities — that  is,  in  accordance  with  certain  rit- 
uals and  certain  ceremonies  and  usages.  Proceeding 
from  these  i^remises,  the  conclusion  is  drawn  that  out- 
side of  the  appointed  buildings  and  of  the  days  conse- 
crated and  divested  of  traditional  forms,  religion  has 
no   voice  w^hatsoever. 

This  entire  line  of  reasoning  is  false  and  misleading. 
Religion  has  a  voice,  or  ought  to  have  a  voice,  not 
only  in  temples  and  synagogues,  but  in  our  dwelling 
houses  too,  and  in  our  business  houses  too,  in  our  pri- 
vate affairs  and  the  affairs  of  city  government  and 
State  government  too — ay,  even  in  the  conduct  and 
shaping  of  international  matters;  in  short,  in  every- 
thing occupying  the  human  mind  and  calling  forth 
human  activity.  Religion  has  a  voice,  or  ought  to  have 
a  voice,  at  all  times,  and  not  only  on  Sabbaths  and 
festive  days  but  on  so-called  week-days  too;  in  the  age 
of  childhood,  of  youth,  of  a  more  mature  period  of 
manhood  and  womanhood,  and  of  the  closing  years  of 
our  earthly  life.  Religion  has  a  voice,  or  ought  to  have 
a  voice,  not  only  in  the  prescribed  rituals  and  ritualis- 


362  The  jewish  house 

tic  usagefi,  but  in  the  common  everyday  speech  of 
business  and  in  the  social  intercourse  between  indi- 
viduals and  individuals. 

Religion  ought  to  be  a  controlling  power  anywhere 
and   everywhere  and  at  every   time. 

And  therefore  I  repeat  it:  The  Jewish  house  ought 
to  be  a  sanctuary  dedicated  to  whatsoever  is  godly  and 
divine.  To-day  I  shall  restrict  myself  in  my  remarks 
to  the  dwelling  house  especially,  reserving  to  myself 
for  other  times  to  speak  of  business  houses,  of  govern- 
ment offices  in  cities  and  States,  of  halls  of  legislature, 
of   clubhouses   and  similar  gathering  places. 

The  house  is  to  be  a  temple.  And  who  are  to  be 
the   priests   in   this  temple? 

You  know  that  in  all  religious  denominations  there 
are  certain  persons  specially  designated  to  conduct  the 
services  and  what  is  connected  therewith — priests,  pas- 
tors, rabbis,  ministers,  or  by  whatever  names  they  may 
be  called.  In  ancient  times,  when  our  forefathers,  the 
Israelites,  dwelt  in  their  own  country,  in  Palestine,  and 
had  their  own  central  sanctuary,  the  temple  in  Jerusa- 
lem, the  descendants  of  Aaron  served  as  priests  in  this 
temple  and  conducted  the  sacrificial  cult  then  in  vogue. 
It  was  a  hereditary  priesthood  which  in  those  remote 
ancient  days  officiated  in  the  temple.  Of  course  the 
priests  officiating  in  our  houses  must  be  other  persons. 
And  who  are  they  ?  Who  are  naturally  to  be  the 
priests  there  ?  Ah,  you  know  it,  and  I  need  not  tell 
you.  It  is  you,  the  head  of  the  household ;  you,  the 
father  of  the  family.  And  your  assistant  in  the  sacred 
office  is  to  be  your  wife,  the  mother  of  the  children, 
the  mistress  of  the  house.  You  combined,  husband 
and  wife,  father  and  mother,  you  must  watch  and 
take  good  care  that  a  truly  religious  spirit  permeates 
your  house,  early  and  late,  on  Sabbaths  and   on  week- 


A   SANCTUARY   OF   THE   LORD.  363 

days,  and  that  all  virtues  possible  be  fostered  and  prac- 
tised in  the  house  governed  by  you,  and  that  nothing 
whatsoever  that  is  unclean — I  mean  nothing  that  is 
irreligious  or  immoral —may  find  an  entrance  in  this 
sanctuary,  your  house. 

Therefore  let  mutual  kindness  and  love,  harmony 
and  peace  constantly  prevail  between  husband  and 
wife.  Keep  your  hearts  pure  and  your  soul-life  un- 
sullied, and  out  of  this  good  soil  of  pure  thoughts  and 
sentiments  will  grow  up  such  a  good  outward  con- 
duct of  life  as  true  religion  demands.  Educate  the 
children  more  by  the  silent  power  of  your  example 
than  by  your  words.  Angry  scolding,  fitful  words,  at 
irregular  times,  then  and  now,  will  rarely,  will  hardly 
ever  have  the  effect  desired,  and  will  not  be  of  any 
good  educational  influence.  They  will,  as  a  rule,  be 
more  harmful  than  good  and  useful.  But  if,  by  your 
own  exemplary  life,  you  give  to  your  children  a 
model  how  to  lead  a  life  in  truthfulness,  industry, 
cleanliness,  order,  punctuality,  modesty,  politeness,  kind- 
ness toward  the  poor  and  suffering  ones,  and  so 
forth,  then  you  have  rendered  and  you  do  render 
a  sacred  service  in  the  sanctuary  of  your  house; 
you  will  be  priests  of  the  Most  High,  of  the  Eternal 
our  God,  and  your  house  will  be,  in  as  far  as  you  can 
make  it  so,  a  temple,  and  God's  holy  spirit  will 
dwell  therein. 

And  the  children,  too,  living  in  this  house,  must 
never  forget  that  under  the  parental  roof  the^  also 
stand  before  God — before  God,  whose  all-seeing  eyes 
see  everything,  whose  all -hearing  ears  perceive  every 
word,  who  even  knows  our  innermost  thoughts  and 
the  most  hidden  of  our  aspirations.  Children,  be  obed- 
ient to  your  parents ;  be  respectful  toward  them ;  be 
thankful  to   them  for    all    the   deeds    of  kindness    and 


364  THE   JEWISH   HOUSE 

of  goodness  which  they  do  for  you ;  love  them  and 
honor  them  as  Ions;  as  they  are  with  you,  and  honor 
tliem  and  keep  them  in  grateful  remembrance  even 
when  they  are  no  more  with  you  and  after  they 
have  departed  from  this  life  and  when  their  bodily 
remains  sleep  their  eternal  slumber  in  the  silent  grave. 
Children,  if  you  are  mindful  of  that  law  which  5^:)U 
will  find  in  the  center  of  the  Ten  Commandments  — 
I  mean  if  you  always  pay  due  regard  to  the  fifth 
commandment:  "Honor  thy  father  and  thy  mother" — 
and  if,  besides  this,  you  maintain  a  truly  fraternal 
and  sisterly  relationship  among  yourselves,  never  for- 
getting the  words  of  the  Psalmist  that  it  is  good  and 
pleasant  when  brothers  live  together  in  h*mony,  then 
you,  on  your  part,  help  toward  transforming  the  house 
into  a  sanctuary,  a  temple  of  the  Lord,  and  a  divine 
spirit  will  dwell  therein  and  God  will  be  worshiped 
there  constantly. 

There  are  other  persons  belonging  to  the  family  oc- 
cupying a  house,  though  there  are  some  who  main- 
tain that  these  other  persons  have  no  claim  toward 
being  counted  as  members  of  the  family.  I  speak 
of  the  class  called  servants.  Where  religion — I  mean 
true  religion — has  a  voice,  and  where  his  voice  is 
heard,  and  where  man  and  wife,  ruling  over  the 
house,  honestly  endeavor  to  have  their  house  be  a 
temple  of  the  Lord,  there  the  servant  is  considered 
a  member  of  the  family.  It  is  a  sign  of  lack  of  re- 
ligion if  such  is  not  the  case  and  if  the  servant 
is  treated  with  unkindness  and  without  sympathy. 
The  pious  Job,  among  the  claims  which  he  made  in 
order  to  demonstrate  that  his  conduct  of  life  was  good 
and  that  he  did  not  deserve  as  punishment  all  the  vis- 
itations by  robbery,  sickness,  death,  suffered  by  him — 
this  pious  Job  also  maintained  that  he    never    wronged 


A  SANCTUARY   OF   THE   LORD.  365 

or  treated  unkindly  his  man-aervant  or  his  maid-ser- 
vant. Listen  to  his  words:  "If  I  should  despise  the 
cause  of  my  man-servant  or  my  maid-servant,  when 
they  contend  with  me,  what,  then,  should  I  do  when 
God  riseth  up?  And  when  He  visiteth,  what  should 
I  answer  Him?  Did  not  He  that  made  me  make  him 
also  ?     And   did  not  one  and  the  same   create   us  ?  " 

You  see  that  already  in  Biblical  times  our  ancient 
prophets  and  sages  laid  great  stress  and  accent  uj^on 
the  thought  that  all  men  are  born  equal.  As  it  is  well 
known  to  you,  this  is  almost  a  self-understood  axiom 
with  Americans;  it  is  an  idea  underlying  the  whole 
political  and  social  life  of  the  American  people.  And 
we  Americans  are  so  very  proud  of  this  idea  because 
it  was,  in  modern  times,  so  sharply  and  distinctly 
enunciated  by  the  fathers  of  the  Republic  in  1776  in 
the  Declaration  of  Independence.  We  admit  that  this 
idea  is  not  true  in  the  sense  that  all  men  are  equal  in 
natural  talents  or  abilities,  or  in  bodily  strength  and 
powers,  or  in  mental  capacities  and  qualifications.  In 
this  sense  men  are  not  born  equal.  But  they  are 
equal  in  their  rights  as  human  beings.  Concerning 
such  rights  and  concerning  such  claims  based  upon 
these  rights,  no  one  is  privileged,  neither  is  one  to  be 
assigned  to  a  back  seat  or  pushed  down  to  a  lower 
grade  because  of  poverty  or  because  he  has  to  be  a 
servant  or  a  laborer.  The  servant,  too,  has  a  full 
claim  upon  being  treated  by  you  kindly,  humanely, 
sympathetically.  And  Israelites  especially  should  be 
models  in  this  regard,  and  their  treatment  of  servants 
and  of  employees  in  general  should  be  a  shining  ex- 
ample for  others.  Long  before  the  time  of  Job  the 
duty  was  impressed  upon  the  Israelites  to  be  kind, 
merciful,    considerate   toward  servants. 

In    the    fourth    of   the  Ten   Commandments  we  are 


366  THE   JEWISH   HOUSE 

enjoined  to  grant  rest  on  the  Sabbath  to  our  man- 
servants and  our  maid-servants,  just  as  well  as  to  our 
sons  and  daughters.  In  other  passages  of  our  Torah 
it  is  repeatedly  said  that  our  servants  also  shall  par- 
ticipate in  the  joys  of  the  festal  days,  as  well  as  the 
other  members  of  the  family.  Thus  it  is  written  in 
the  Torah :  "And  thou  shalt  be  rejoicing  on  thy  fes- 
tive day — thou,  and  thy  son,  and  thy  daughter,  and 
thy  man-servant,  and  thy  maid-servant,  and  the  Levite, 
and  the  stranger,  and  the  orphan,  and  the  widow 
who  are  in  thy  gates."  And  there  is  one  passage  in 
the  Scriptures  which  particularly  appeals  to  every  Is- 
raelite: "Remember  that  thou  thyself  hast  been  a 
slave  in  Egypt."  And  in  another  place:  "You  should 
know  how  a  stranger,  a  friendless  one  feels  in  his 
soul  and  heart;  you  should  know  it,  and  with  sym- 
pathy take  cognizance  of  his  sad  thoughts  and  de- 
pressed mind,  for  you  also  have  been  strangers."  O 
friends,  do  not  set  up  the  plea  that  such  treatment 
of  servants  is  unfashionable ;  that  it  may  have  been 
w^ell  enough  in  olden  times  to  maintain  such  a  rela- 
tionship between  master  and  laborer,  between  mistress 
and  servant,  between  employer  and  employee,  but  that 
now  such  a  reconstruction  of  society  is  out  of  date. 
Out  of  date  !  Not  fashionable !  The  laws  of  morality, 
the  behests  of  religion  are  never  out  of  date — never  ! 
These  laws  and  these  behests  are  eternally  binding. 
If  they  are  not  observed,  if,  on  the  contrary,  they  are 
disregarded,  then  the  house  is  not  a  temple  of  the 
Lord,  and  the  spirit  of  God  is  not  dwelling  therein. 
Instead  of  true  culture,  unculture  has  its  habitation 
there;  and  instead  of  true  refinement,  vulgarity  j)re- 
vails  there. 

A   kind  master  or   mistress  has  sufficient    psycholog- 
ical   insight    and    judgment    to    know    how    a   servant 


A   SANCTUARY   OF   THE   LORD.  367 

feels  whom  circumstances  compel  to  find  employment 
with  other  people;  how  grateful  he  or  she  is  for  being 
treated  with  kindness ;  how  sad  he  or  she  is  if  treated 
unkindly  ;  and  how  happy  many  of  them  would  feel 
if  they  would  know  that  they  are  considered  as  mem- 
bers of  the  family  and  if  they  would  be  able  to  say 
that  they  have  found  a  home  !  And  how  would  they 
show  their  gratitude  by  faithfulness  and  by  sincere 
attachment  to  those  who  employ  them  !  And  should 
we  not  also  sometimes  think  that  we  ought  to  be 
thankful  to  them  for  doing  all  the  drudgery  and  all 
the  rough  work  in  and  around  the  house  or  else- 
where while  in  our  employ?  And,  besides  this, 
should  we  not  also  sometimes  think  that  the  servant 
too  has  a  father  and  a  mother  who  loved  him  or 
her  dearly  and  who  educated  him  or  her  as  well  as 
they  could  afford,  and  who,  if  they  still  live,  would 
feel  sad  and  sorrowful,  and  would  perhaps  have  their 
eyes  filled  by  tears,  if  they  would  learn  that  their  son 
or  their  daughter  is  roughly  spoken  to  or  unkindly 
treated  in  the  house  of  strangers?  How  would  any 
of  us  feel  if  a  child  of  ours  should  be  among  stran- 
gers and  we  would  learn  that  the  same  meets  a 
heartless  treatment? 

There  is  a  spirit  of  restlessness  widespread  in  the  pre- 
sent age.  Unrest  and  dissatisfaction  prevail  in  large  cir- 
cles and  in  many  countries.  The  laborer  and  the  em- 
ployer, the  servant  and  the  master,  the  poor  and  the 
rich — they  do  not  live  together  as  harmoniously  and  as 
peacefully  and  as  happily  as  it  was  the  case  in  former 
times.  We  shall  not  enter  to-day  into  an  examination 
of  the  various  causes  which  brought  forth  this  state  of 
affairs.  One  of  the  causes  is,  no  doubt,  the  lack  of  sym- 
pathy with  the  poor  ones  and  the  forsaken  ones,  with 
those  in  the  lower  stratum  of  society.    Our  times  have 


368  THE  JEWISH   HOUSE 

become  degenerated  at  least  in  some  regards,  and  they 
stand  now,  in  these  regards,  lower  than  the  times 
passed.  Do  not  speak  so  boastfully  of  progress,  of  the 
achievements  in  natural  philosophy,  in  chemistry  and 
mechanics,  in  medical  science  and  surgical  art,  and  so 
forth.  There  was  progress  made  — a  wonderful  progress 
— in  these  fields.  But  how  in  some  departments  of 
morals  ?  How  in  Htcmanitat  f  Are  we  as  humane,  and 
sympathetic,  and  considerate,  and  noble-souled  as  our 
parents  and  grandparents  have  been?  Are  we,  are  all 
of  us  so  kindl}^  and  tenderly  disposed  toward  the  poorer 
classes  of  our  fellow-men  as  our  ancestors  have  been? 
Have  all  of  us  become  more  humanized?  Have  not 
some  of  us  become  more  brutalized? 

The  spirit  of  unrest  in  our  modern  world  is,  to  a  cer- 
tain degree,  explainable  and  perfectly  excusable.  Not 
all  the  demands  of  the  so-called  socialists  are  unreason- 
able. While  a  radical  reconstruction  of  society  upon  a 
new  basis,  such  as  the  extreme  ones  among  the  social- 
istic dreamers  would  like  to  see,  is  undoubtedly  vision- 
ary and  of  an  Utopian  character,  yet  some  of  their 
claims — among  them  the  claim  that  all  human  beings 
shall  be  considered  equal  in  the  enjoyment  of  the  in- 
nate and  inalienable  rights  of  man,  and  that  all  of 
them  have  the  right  to  demand  that  they  be  treated 
with  consideration  and  in  true  kindness,  and  that  the 
poor  ones  shall  be  considered  essentially  just  as  good 
as  the  rich  ones  are  and  as  the  so-called  higher  classes 
are— these  claims  will  be  and  must  be  fulfilled,  and  in 
so  far  the  socialistic  demands  will  be  realized  and  will 
not  remain  mere  dreams.  Society  is  in  unrest,  is  in  a 
state  of  fermentation,  and  it  may  safely  be  predicted 
that  the  harmonious  living  together  of  the  various 
classes  of  which  society  is  composed  will  not  take 
place   until   these  claims   have   found   a  hearing   and  a 


A  SAKG^tJARY   0»  tfi*  LORD.  860 

i«alization.  Other  times  will  come,  and  better  times — 
not  in  the  nineteenth  century,  fol"  this  will  soon  close, 
but  in  the  twentieth  century. 

Friends,  I  know  that  these  ideas  advanced  by  m« 
this  day  are  not  shared  by  all  my  hearers.  I  know 
that  some  will  think  them  to  be  out  of  date;  that 
some  up-to-date  people  will  say :  "  The  servants  are 
servants,  and  have  to  be  treated  as  servants;  we  pay 
them  so  much  wages  per  week  or  month,  and  in  con- 
sideration of  these  wages  they  have  to  do  our  work 
and  have  to  receive  our  treatment,  of  whatever  nature 
it  may  be;  if  they  do  not  like  it  they  may  go,"  and 
so  forth.  I  know  that  many  entertain  such  ideas,  but 
I  do  not  express  other  people's  views.  I  stand  here  as 
a  teacher  of  religion  and  of  morality,  and  as  such  I 
teach  the  laws  of  religion  and  the  demands  of  morality. 
I  would  be  derelict  in  my  duty  would  I  act.  otherwise 
and  would  I,  in  such  questions,  hrst  shrewdly  consider 
whether  my  teachings  are  popular  or  not,  fashionable 
or  not,  and  whether  they  are  shared  by  the  majority  or 
not.  He  who,  like  the  prophet  Ezekiel,  can  say  that 
he  has  been  appointed  as  a  watchman  over  the  house 
of  Israel,  he  must  fearlessly  denounce  the  moral  fail- 
ings and  shortcomings  of  the  people;  he  must  warn 
the  people  and  must  show  them  the  right  ways,  with- 
out fear  and  without  hesitation.  If  his  words  of  ad- 
monition, and  of  warning,  and  of  instruction  fall  upon 
barren  ground,  then  he,  the  watchman,  has  at  least 
the  consciousness  of  having  done  his  duty,  and,  with 
the  prophet,  he  can  at  least  say :  "  I  have  spoken  and 
I   have   saved   my  soul." 

In  the  beginning  of  my  discourse  I  stated  the  sub- 
ject of  the  same  to  be:  "The  Jewish  house  must  be, 
or  ought  to  be,  a  sanctuary  dedicated  to  what  is  godly 
or   divine."      I   conclude     now   by    appealing    to    you. 


370  THE   JEWISH    HOUSE. 

Let  your  houses  be  sanctuaries,  templ(;s  of  the 
Lord,  dedicated  to  what  is  godly  or  divine,  and  be 
you,  fathers  and  mothers,  priests  in  these  temples. 
Amen. 


,  14  DAY  USE 

I  RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 

Renewed  books  ace  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


wea  uuv»n.a  »i.*'  j-p^j J 

rteWAlb  UNIV  -   lei.  No.  642-3403 


■JR  STACKS 


m  I*  ^36%  S, 


'zAymm- 


-OAN   DEpjE 


1 


^ 


9  7^ 


LD  2lA-10m-l,'68 
(H7452sl0)476B 


General  Library     . 
University  of  California 
Berkeley 


Juu    1  1968^*' 


L§: 


^%%ft 


Llf21-50m-l,'33 


.^0^4 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


